Chemists in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,696
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$16,394
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,252
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$77,090
Kept after tax
$60,696
Worth in national money
$62,252
State rank
45
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for chemists is on the low side in Pennsylvania. The middle earner gets $77,090. That is 45 of 51 states, and about 15.51% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Chemists ranks 139 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $77,090, tax leaves $60,696, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $62,252 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $87,990, since top earners drag the number up.
- For chemists, Pennsylvania sits in the lower band at $77,090, ranking 45 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 15.51%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 139 of 492 in Pennsylvania places chemists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chemists — median $77,090 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $60,696 retained, $62,252 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $87,990 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chemists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $144,860 |
| This salary | $77,090 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Pennsylvania | $60,696 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,063 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,644 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $73,726 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,652 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $77,090 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,800 and the ninetieth is $144,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Pennsylvania the take-home figure of $60,696, from $77,090, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 139 of 492 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $62,252, the adjusted value of that $77,090 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 139 of 492 in the state.
- The Pennsylvania median of $77,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,800 to $144,860. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Pennsylvania is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $60,696 from $77,090. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 139 of 492 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $62,252 — the adjusted value of that $77,090 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 139 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $87,990, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $49,800 and the top tenth $144,860 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $62,252.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $60,696 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Pennsylvania is $87,990. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($49,800) and the ninetieth ($144,860) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $62,252 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $60,696 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.