Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,166
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$19,344
24.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,397
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$79,510
Kept after tax
$60,166
Worth in national money
$55,397
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Hawaii sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $79,510, ranking 25 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 139 among 437 occupations Hawaii publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $79,510, tax leaves $60,166 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $55,397 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $80,720, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii occupies the middle band for environmental scientists and specialists, including health: a median of $79,510, ranking 25 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 139 of 437 in Hawaii places environmental scientists and specialists, including health in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $60,166 remains from the Hawaii median of $79,510 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $55,397 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $80,720 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $111,700 |
| This salary | $79,510 |
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 Hawaii | $60,166 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,765 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,251 |
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 | $72,972 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$15,227 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $79,510 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $53,500 and the ninetieth is $111,700 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $60,166 take-home in Hawaii comes from $79,510. 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 139 of 437.
- Two cautions on $55,397, the adjusted value of that $79,510 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 139 of 437 locally.
- The Hawaii median of $79,510 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $53,500 to $111,700. 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 $60,166, from $79,510, assumes a single Hawaii 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 139 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- This $55,397 adjusted figure, worked from $79,510, 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 139 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 139 of 437 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $53,500 and the top tenth $111,700 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Hawaii run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $55,397 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $60,166 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($53,500) and the ninetieth ($111,700) 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?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $55,397 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 $60,166 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.