Conservation Scientists in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,478
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$16,382
22.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,433
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$73,860
Kept after tax
$57,478
Worth in national money
$55,433
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Connecticut is 25 of 51 states for conservation scientists, with a middle wage of $73,860. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Connecticut, this sits in the middle: 208 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $73,860, tax leaves $57,478 — and because Connecticut is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $55,433 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $80,940, since top earners drag the number up.
- Connecticut ranks 25 of 51 for conservation scientists at $73,860. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Conservation scientists ranks 208 of 482 occupations in Connecticut by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $57,478 remains from the Connecticut median of $73,860 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $55,433 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $80,940 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Conservation Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $65,430 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $123,320 |
| This salary | $73,860 |
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 Connecticut | $57,478 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,791 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,124 |
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 | $69,152 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,532 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of conservation scientists in Connecticut earn under $73,860 and half over. The published range runs $65,430 at the tenth percentile to $123,320 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $57,478 take-home in Connecticut comes from $73,860. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 208 of 482.
- One number stands for prices across all of Connecticut, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $55,433, the adjusted value of that $73,860 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 208 of 482 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for conservation scientists in Connecticut, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $65,430 to $123,320; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $57,478, from $73,860, assumes a single Connecticut filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 208 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Connecticut, so $55,433 — the adjusted value of that $73,860 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 208 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $80,940 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $65,430 and the top tenth $123,320 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $55,433 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Connecticut's own levy, $57,478 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Connecticut is $80,940. 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 ($65,430) and the ninetieth ($123,320) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $55,433 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $57,478 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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.