Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,920
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$16,680
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,221
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$80,600
Kept after tax
$63,920
Worth in national money
$63,221
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Arizona pays this job around $80,600 at the midpoint, 23 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Arizona reports, this job comes in at 107 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $80,600, tax leaves $63,920, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,221 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental scientists and specialists, including health the Arizona median is $80,600, ranking 23 of 51 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.
- Environmental scientists and specialists, including health ranks 107 of 491 occupations by median in Arizona, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental scientists and specialists, including health — median $80,600 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $63,920 retained, $63,221 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $160,910 |
| This salary | $80,600 |
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 Arizona | $63,920 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,532 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,216 |
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 | $78,308 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,824 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,600 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,100 and the ninetieth is $160,910 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $63,920 take-home in Arizona comes from $80,600. 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 107 of 491.
- Two cautions on $63,221, the adjusted value of that $80,600 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 107 of 491 locally.
- The Arizona median of $80,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,100 to $160,910. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $63,920, from $80,600, assumes a single Arizona 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 107 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 51 for it.
- This $63,221 adjusted figure, worked from $80,600, 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 107 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 107 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $92,740, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $57,100 at the bottom tenth to $160,910 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $63,221 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; Arizona then takes its own share, leaving $63,920.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Arizona is $92,740. 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 ($57,100) and the ninetieth ($160,910) 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?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $63,221 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 $63,920 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.