Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Missouri

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May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$49,302

after federal, FICA and Missouri tax

Tax takes

$11,748

19.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$53,728

Missouri costs less 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

$61,050

Kept after tax

$49,302

Worth in national money

$53,728

State rank

48

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Missouri is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $61,050, ranking 48 of 51 states — about 25.75% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 488 occupations Missouri reports figures for, this is number 199.
  • Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $61,050 the take-home is $49,302; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $53,728 would nationally. The average comes to $66,360, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • Missouri ranks 48 of 51 for environmental scientists and specialists, including health, with a median of $61,050 — about 25.75% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
  • In Missouri's occupational distribution, environmental scientists and specialists, including health sits at 199 of 488 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Post-tax income for environmental scientists and specialists, including health in Missouri, on $61,050, is $49,302 — equivalent to $53,728 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $66,360 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.

Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$49,140
Half earn under$61,050
Top tenth earn over$88,710
This salary$61,050

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
+$1,932take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Missouri$49,302
Take-home in Texas$51,234
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,005

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

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
$0$62,265
$62,265in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$58,645
Raise you would need+$1,215
Prices in Texas97 vs 92

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $61,050 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,140 and the ninetieth is $88,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Missouri's $49,302, worked from $61,050. 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 199 of 488.
  • Two cautions on $53,728, the adjusted value of that $61,050 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. 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 199 of 488 locally.
  • The Missouri median of $61,050 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,140 to $88,710. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • The Missouri take-home of $49,302, on $61,050 for work ranking 199 of 488 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 199 of 488 in the state.
  • This $53,728 adjusted figure, worked from $61,050, 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 199 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 199 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $66,360, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $49,140 at the bottom tenth to $88,710 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $53,728 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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 Missouri's own levy, $49,302 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.

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 Missouri is $66,360. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,140 to $88,710) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Missouri'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 $53,728 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 $49,302 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.