Data Scientists in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,383
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$25,057
24.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$76,306
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$102,440
Kept after tax
$77,383
Worth in national money
$76,306
State rank
26
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Rhode Island pays data scientists around $102,440 at the midpoint, 26 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Rhode Island. It ranks 69 out of 452 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $102,440, tax leaves $77,383, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $76,306 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $111,260, since top earners drag the number up.
- For data scientists the Rhode Island median is $102,440, ranking 26 of 49 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Rhode Island, data scientists ranks 69 of 452 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for data scientists — median $102,440 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $77,383 retained, $76,306 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $111,260 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Data Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $75,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $102,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $158,820 |
| This salary | $102,440 |
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 Rhode Island | $77,383 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $80,897 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,943 |
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 | $97,446 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,590 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 data scientists in Rhode Island earn under $102,440 and half over. The published range runs $75,310 at the tenth percentile to $158,820 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $77,383, from $102,440, 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 69 of 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $76,306, the adjusted value of that $102,440 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 69 of 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for data scientists in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $75,310 to $158,820; 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.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $77,383 from $102,440. 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 69 of 452 locally.
- This $76,306 adjusted figure, worked from $102,440, 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 69 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 69 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $111,260, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $75,310 and the top tenth $158,820 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $76,306 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Rhode Island then takes its own share, leaving $77,383.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Rhode Island is $111,260. 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 ($75,310) and the ninetieth ($158,820) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $76,306 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 $77,383 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.