Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,611
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$12,269
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,014
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$66,880
Kept after tax
$54,611
Worth in national money
$54,014
State rank
36
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for zoologists and wildlife biologists is on the low side in Arizona. The middle earner gets $66,880. That is 36 of 47 states, and about 12.89% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 168 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $66,880, tax leaves $54,611, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $54,014 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $71,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- For zoologists and wildlife biologists, Arizona sits in the lower band at $66,880, ranking 36 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 12.89%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Zoologists and wildlife biologists ranks 168 of 491 occupations in Arizona by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for zoologists and wildlife biologists — median $66,880 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $54,611 retained, $54,014 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $71,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $66,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,100 |
| This salary | $66,880 |
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 Arizona | $54,611 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $55,880 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,491 |
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 | $65,253 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,269 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $66,880 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,400 and the ninetieth is $96,100 — 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 Arizona's $54,611, worked from $66,880. 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 168 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,014, the adjusted value of that $66,880 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 168 of 491 in the state.
- The Arizona median of $66,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,400 to $96,100. 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 Arizona take-home of $54,611, on $66,880 for work ranking 168 of 491 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 168 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $54,014 — the adjusted value of that $66,880 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 168 of 491 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 $71,270 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $48,400 at the tenth percentile, $96,100 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Arizona run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $54,014 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Arizona's own levy, $54,611 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Arizona is $71,270. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($48,400 to $96,100) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $54,014 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 $54,611 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.