Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,261
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$24,469
24.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,200
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$100,730
Kept after tax
$76,261
Worth in national money
$75,200
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Rhode Island pays this job a middle wage of $100,730, ranking 3 of 51 states and sitting about 22.51% above the national middle.
- Within Rhode Island this is well-paid work. Of 452 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 81 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $100,730, tax leaves $76,261, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $75,200 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $104,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island's median for environmental scientists and specialists, including health is $100,730, about 22.51% above the national figure and 3 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Rhode Island publishes a median for, environmental scientists and specialists, including health sits 81 of 452 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental scientists and specialists, including health — median $100,730 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $76,261 retained, $75,200 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $104,460 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 | $66,420 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $100,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $139,050 |
| This salary | $100,730 |
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 Rhode Island | $76,261 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,694 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,811 |
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 | $95,851 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,408 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $100,730 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $66,420 and the ninetieth is $139,050 — 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 Rhode Island's $76,261, worked from $100,730. 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 81 of 452.
- Two cautions on $75,200, the adjusted value of that $100,730 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 81 of 452 locally.
- The Rhode Island median of $100,730 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $66,420 to $139,050. 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 Rhode Island take-home of $76,261, on $100,730 for work ranking 81 of 452 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 81 of 452 in the state.
- This $75,200 adjusted figure, worked from $100,730, 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 81 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 81 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $104,460 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $66,420 and the top tenth $139,050 — 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 Rhode Island run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $75,200 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $76,261 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 Rhode Island is $104,460. 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 ($66,420) and the ninetieth ($139,050) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $75,200 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 $76,261 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.