Soil and Plant Scientists in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,946
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$18,664
23.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,926
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$79,610
Kept after tax
$60,946
Worth in national money
$61,926
State rank
14
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Minnesota pays soil and plant scientists a middle wage of $79,610, ranking 14 of 46 states and sitting about 0.96% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Soil and plant scientists ranks 156 among 490 occupations Minnesota publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $79,610, tax leaves $60,946, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,926 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $88,200, since top earners drag the number up.
- Minnesota's median for soil and plant scientists is $79,610, about 0.96% above the national figure and 14 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 156 of 490 in Minnesota places soil and plant scientists 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 Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for soil and plant scientists — median $79,610 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $60,946 retained, $61,926 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $88,200 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Soil and Plant Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $136,160 |
| This salary | $79,610 |
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 Minnesota | $60,946 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,836 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,795 |
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 | $74,080 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,623 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of soil and plant scientists in Minnesota earn under $79,610 and half over. The published range runs $50,490 at the tenth percentile to $136,160 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Minnesota's $60,946, worked from $79,610. 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 156 of 490.
- Two cautions on $61,926, the adjusted value of that $79,610 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. 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 156 of 490 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for soil and plant scientists in Minnesota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,490 to $136,160; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Minnesota take-home of $60,946, on $79,610 for work ranking 156 of 490 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 156 of 490 in the state.
- This $61,926 adjusted figure, worked from $79,610, 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 156 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 156 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $88,200, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $50,490 at the bottom tenth to $136,160 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $61,926 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 Minnesota's own levy, $60,946 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Minnesota is $88,200. 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 ($50,490) and the ninetieth ($136,160) 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?
Minnesota'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 $61,926 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 $60,946 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.