Data Scientists in Maryland

A computer workspace with headphones, a laptop and a small circuit board.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$98,148

after federal, FICA and Maryland tax

Tax takes

$38,222

28.0% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$94,405

Maryland costs more than average

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

$136,370

Kept after tax

$98,148

Worth in national money

$94,405

State rank

3

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Maryland pays data scientists a middle wage of $136,370, ranking 3 of 49 states and sitting about 13.42% above the national middle.
  • This is one of the better-paid jobs in Maryland. It ranks 30 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
  • Costs eat into it here. Of $136,370, tax leaves $98,148 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $94,405 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $144,080, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Maryland's median for data scientists is $136,370, about 13.42% above the national figure and 3 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • Within Maryland, data scientists ranks 30 of 489 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
  • After tax, $98,148 remains from the Maryland median of $136,370 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $94,405 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $144,080 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Data Scientists

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$77,930
Half earn under$136,370
Top tenth earn over$213,270
This salary$136,370

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

Compare with
+$6,327take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Maryland$98,148
Take-home in Texas$104,475
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$13,107

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

Moving to
$0now · $136,370$117,851
$117,851in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$127,114
You could take a cut of−$18,519
Prices in Texas97 vs 104

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Maryland earn less than $136,370. The published range is $77,930 up to $213,270, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maryland's $98,148, worked from $136,370. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 30 of 489.
  • Two cautions on $94,405, the adjusted value of that $136,370 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maryland. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 30 of 489 locally.
  • Reported values are medians; for data scientists in Maryland the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $77,930 to $213,270. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • The Maryland take-home of $98,148, on $136,370 for work ranking 30 of 489 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 30 of 489 in the state.
  • This $94,405 adjusted figure, worked from $136,370, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 30 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 30 of 489 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 $144,080 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 $77,930 and the top tenth $213,270 — 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 $94,405 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 Maryland's own levy, $98,148 remains.

Why is this job missing from some states?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.

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 Maryland is $144,080. 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 ($77,930) and the ninetieth ($213,270) 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?

Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $94,405 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 $98,148 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.

Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?

BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.