Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,037
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$16,073
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,576
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
$76,110
Kept after tax
$60,037
Worth in national money
$61,576
State rank
32
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays this job around $76,110 at the midpoint, 32 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 492 occupations Pennsylvania reports figures for, this is number 143.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $76,110, tax leaves $60,037, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,576 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $82,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental scientists and specialists, including health the Pennsylvania median is $76,110, ranking 32 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.
- In Pennsylvania's occupational distribution, environmental scientists and specialists, including health sits at 143 of 492 — 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental scientists and specialists, including health — median $76,110 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $60,037 retained, $61,576 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $82,270 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 | $50,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $76,110 |
| Top tenth earn over | $125,520 |
| This salary | $76,110 |
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 | $60,037 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,373 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,610 |
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 | $72,789 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,606 |
| 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 $76,110. The published range is $50,660 up to $125,520, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $60,037, worked from $76,110. 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 143 of 492.
- Two cautions on $61,576, the adjusted value of that $76,110 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 143 of 492 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for environmental scientists and specialists, including health in Pennsylvania the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $50,660 to $125,520. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $60,037, on $76,110 for work ranking 143 of 492 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 143 of 492 in the state.
- This $61,576 adjusted figure, worked from $76,110, 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 143 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 143 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 $82,270, 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 $50,660, the highest tenth $125,520, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Pennsylvania sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $61,576 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $60,037 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Pennsylvania is $82,270. 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 ($50,660) and the ninetieth ($125,520) 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 $61,576 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 $60,037 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.
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.