Social Science Research Assistants in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,383
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$10,227
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,521
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
$54,610
Kept after tax
$44,383
Worth in national money
$45,521
State rank
26
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays social science research assistants around $54,610 at the midpoint, 26 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Social science research assistants ranks 280 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $54,610, tax leaves $44,383, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $45,521 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $60,080, since top earners drag the number up.
- For social science research assistants the Pennsylvania median is $54,610, ranking 26 of 45 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.
- Position 280 of 492 in Pennsylvania places social science research assistants 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for social science research assistants — median $54,610 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $44,383 retained, $45,521 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $60,080 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Social Science Research Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,640 |
| This salary | $54,610 |
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 | $44,383 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $46,059 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,878 |
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 | $52,523 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,271 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $54,610 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,710 and the ninetieth is $81,640 — 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 Pennsylvania's $44,383, worked from $54,610. 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 280 of 492.
- Two cautions on $45,521, the adjusted value of that $54,610 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 280 of 492 locally.
- The Pennsylvania median of $54,610 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,710 to $81,640. 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 Pennsylvania take-home of $44,383, on $54,610 for work ranking 280 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 280 of 492 in the state.
- This $45,521 adjusted figure, worked from $54,610, 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 280 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 280 of 492 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 $60,080 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $44,710 and the top tenth $81,640, so most people doing this work in Pennsylvania sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $45,521.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $44,383 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $60,080. 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 ($44,710 to $81,640) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Pennsylvania rather than a national figure.
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 $45,521 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 $44,383 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.