Foresters Salary and Pay
How much do Foresters make?
Median pay for Foresters is $70,660 a year ($33.97); the mean is $74,670. The occupation employed 9,650 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $58,810 to $85,450.
One page for the whole Foresters pay distribution: national ladder first, then all 44 state rows and the metro rankings, every figure from BLS OEWS May 2024.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $70,660 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $49,240 | $23.68 |
| 25th percentile | $58,810 | $28.27 |
| Median (50th) | $70,660 | $33.97 |
| 75th percentile | $85,450 | $41.08 |
| 90th percentile | $103,220 | $49.62 |
A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Foresters ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $58,810. BLS top-codes very high wages ($239,200+ a year, $115.00+ an hour) and marks estimates it cannot publish as n/p.
Employment and concentration
With 9,650 jobs nationally, Foresters make up 0.01% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Washington alone holds 980 of those jobs, the top three states hold 25.7%, and the deepest concentration sits in Montana (location quotient 8.24, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $58,810 at the 25th percentile, $70,660 at the middle, $85,450 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $53,980, a ratio of 2.1 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 44 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is California at $98,870; the jobs leader is Washington:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | 980 | 0.3 | 4.41 | $81,680 | $74,360 |
| California | 830 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $101,700 | $98,870 |
| Oregon | 670 | 0.3 | 5.42 | $76,800 | $77,320 |
| Wisconsin | 570 | 0.2 | 3.09 | $67,560 | $65,960 |
| Florida | 540 | 0.1 | 0.88 | $58,680 | $50,090 |
| Virginia | 350 | 0.1 | 1.38 | $73,170 | $69,250 |
| Michigan | 320 | 0.1 | 1.18 | $77,490 | $78,040 |
| Alabama | 300 | 0.1 | 2.27 | $69,870 | $71,070 |
| Idaho | 290 | 0.3 | 5.54 | $62,830 | $62,050 |
| New York | 280 | 0.0 | 0.47 | $80,550 | $76,730 |
| Massachusetts | 270 | 0.1 | 1.20 | $68,660 | $65,390 |
| Pennsylvania | 270 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $79,970 | $77,150 |
| Montana | 260 | 0.5 | 8.24 | $67,630 | $64,200 |
| Georgia | 240 | 0.0 | 0.78 | $69,140 | $63,360 |
| North Carolina | 240 | 0.0 | 0.77 | $75,220 | $70,320 |
| Minnesota | 200 | 0.1 | 1.12 | $72,080 | $72,280 |
| Texas | 200 | 0.0 | 0.23 | $71,240 | $71,180 |
| Colorado | 180 | 0.1 | 0.97 | $70,860 | $69,380 |
| Illinois | 170 | 0.0 | 0.44 | $77,880 | $75,160 |
| Ohio | 150 | 0.0 | 0.43 | $70,670 | $69,160 |
| Indiana | 140 | 0.0 | 0.72 | $58,910 | $53,650 |
| Tennessee | 140 | 0.0 | 0.66 | $71,900 | $69,180 |
| Arkansas | 120 | 0.1 | 1.50 | $67,120 | $65,960 |
| Maine | 120 | 0.2 | 2.94 | $65,030 | $61,640 |
| Kentucky | 110 | 0.1 | 0.90 | $61,410 | $54,580 |
| Missouri | 110 | 0.0 | 0.62 | $62,820 | $62,980 |
| South Carolina | 110 | 0.1 | 0.79 | $75,470 | $77,030 |
| South Dakota | 110 | 0.2 | 3.90 | $64,300 | $63,510 |
| West Virginia | 110 | 0.1 | 2.40 | $59,030 | $56,940 |
| Louisiana | 100 | 0.1 | 0.84 | $82,400 | $79,580 |
| Mississippi | 100 | 0.1 | 1.34 | $73,360 | $65,960 |
| New Hampshire | 100 | 0.1 | 2.38 | $82,470 | $79,230 |
| Vermont | 100 | 0.3 | 5.18 | $74,880 | $76,360 |
| Maryland | 90 | 0.0 | 0.53 | $75,520 | $79,890 |
| Alaska | 80 | 0.3 | 4.22 | $83,480 | $85,550 |
| Connecticut | 80 | 0.0 | 0.75 | $80,560 | $78,610 |
| Arizona | 70 | 0.0 | 0.35 | $68,460 | $65,960 |
| District of Columbia | 70 | 0.1 | 1.64 | $85,780 | $61,440 |
| Iowa | 50 | 0.0 | 0.53 | $75,260 | $80,590 |
| New Mexico | 50 | 0.1 | 0.85 | $69,100 | $63,860 |
| Wyoming | 50 | 0.2 | 2.97 | $70,200 | $69,260 |
| Kansas | 40 | 0.0 | 0.45 | $68,440 | $63,890 |
| Utah | 40 | 0.0 | 0.40 | $69,740 | $68,930 |
| Oklahoma | n/p | n/p | n/p | $56,850 | $48,810 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Foresters stands number 692 by employment and number 283 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations, the group median wage is $84,150 across 48 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 16% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.7% of the group's 1,446,780 jobs. In 18 of the 44 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $70,660, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH is the largest metro employer with 190 jobs, 2.0% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 58 metros BLS publishes for this occupation: where the jobs are, then where the money is, with the pay ranking restricted to metros employing at least 500 people in this occupation to keep small samples out of the lead.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 190 | $69,400 | $65,320 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 140 | $87,430 | $77,700 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 130 | $83,120 | $81,140 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 120 | $114,330 | $103,520 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 110 | $79,670 | $78,860 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 110 | $105,620 | $98,920 |
| Salem, OR | 100 | $84,180 | $85,150 |
| Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA | 90 | $73,770 | $67,370 |
| Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA | 90 | $78,630 | $74,360 |
| Eugene-Springfield, OR | 80 | $74,650 | $74,280 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median annual wage of $70,660 works out to $5,888 a month before taxes, $2,718 per biweekly paycheck, and $1,359 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($58,810) to the 75th ($85,450) is worth $26,640 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Run the median through the paycheck calculator for a take-home estimate in your state, compare an offer against your current pay with the salary calculator, and check whether a raise actually beats prices with the raise vs inflation calculator.
To place a real offer: a salary of $77,726 would sit between the median ($70,660) and the 75th percentile ($85,450), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $58,810, is $11,850 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations
Sibling occupations in Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations: School Psychologists, Biological Scientists, All Other, Chemical Technicians, Urban and Regional Planners, Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health, Social Scientists and Related Workers, All Other. Medians there are computed identically, so the comparison is apples to apples; the full set lives on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median salary for Foresters?
$70,660 a year ($33.97), the middle wage among 9,650 counted workers in the BLS May 2024 estimates. The 75th percentile is $85,450 and the 90th is $103,220.
Where are Foresters jobs concentrated?
By headcount, Washington leads with 980 jobs; by concentration, Montana leads with a location quotient of 8.24, meaning the occupation is 8.24 times as dense there as nationally.
What do the top 10% of Foresters earn?
$103,220 a year or more. The gap between the 90th percentile and the median ($70,660) is the size of the senior and specialist premium in this occupation.
How does EveryCalc get Foresters pay data?
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS bulk files for May 2024 (national, state, and metropolitan), downloaded November 5, 2026. Nothing on this page is self-reported by workers or scraped from job postings.