Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,050
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$11,600
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,308
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
$60,650
Kept after tax
$49,050
Worth in national money
$50,308
State rank
11
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Pennsylvania pays this job a middle wage of $60,650, ranking 11 of 49 states and sitting about 10.09% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 234 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $60,650, tax leaves $49,050, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $50,308 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $65,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- Pennsylvania's median for environmental science and protection technicians, including health is $60,650, about 10.09% above the national figure and 11 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.
- Environmental science and protection technicians, including health ranks 234 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental science and protection technicians, including health — median $60,650 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,050 retained, $50,308 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $65,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,390 |
| This salary | $60,650 |
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 | $49,050 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,912 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,084 |
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 | $58,333 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,521 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Pennsylvania earn less than $60,650. The published range is $45,530 up to $97,390, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $49,050 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $60,650. 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 234 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,308, the adjusted value of that $60,650 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 234 of 492 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for environmental science and protection technicians, including health in Pennsylvania the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $45,530 to $97,390. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $49,050, from $60,650, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 234 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $50,308 — the adjusted value of that $60,650 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 234 of 492 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 $65,320, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $45,530, the highest tenth $97,390, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $50,308 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $49,050 remains.
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 Pennsylvania is $65,320. 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 ($45,530) and the ninetieth ($97,390) 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 $50,308 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 $49,050 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.
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.