Hydrologic Technicians Salary and Pay
How much do Hydrologic Technicians make?
Hydrologic Technicians pay a median of $58,570 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $64,410 across 2,940 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $47,450 and $79,790.
What Hydrologic Technicians actually pay, from the federal wage survey: a $58,570 median, the full percentile ladder, every state's table, and the metros where the jobs and the money sit, on one page.
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 $58,570 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 | $40,330 | $19.39 |
| 25th percentile | $47,450 | $22.81 |
| Median (50th) | $58,570 | $28.16 |
| 75th percentile | $79,790 | $38.36 |
| 90th percentile | $94,310 | $45.34 |
A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Hydrologic Technicians ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $47,450. 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
BLS counted 2,940 Hydrologic Technicians jobs in May 2024, which is 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. Work is most concentrated in Alaska, where the location quotient is 5.47, meaning the occupation holds 5.47 times its national share of local jobs. California employs the most people outright, 400 of them, and the three largest state employers together account for 26.5% of the national total.
One in ten workers in this field earns $40,330 or less, and one in ten earns $94,310 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 2.3 to 1 and the annual gap is $53,980. The mean ($64,410) versus median ($58,570) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 29 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is Washington at $81,380; the jobs leader is California:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 400 | 0.0 | 1.15 | $69,560 | $63,900 |
| Texas | 220 | 0.0 | 0.84 | $62,890 | $53,250 |
| Florida | 160 | 0.0 | 0.86 | $57,630 | $52,210 |
| Colorado | 130 | 0.0 | 2.29 | $64,460 | $54,500 |
| North Carolina | 110 | 0.0 | 1.17 | $59,060 | $51,710 |
| Pennsylvania | 100 | 0.0 | 0.87 | $70,290 | $65,960 |
| Idaho | 90 | 0.1 | 5.39 | $65,790 | $56,900 |
| Oregon | 90 | 0.0 | 2.40 | $61,830 | $58,390 |
| Maryland | 80 | 0.0 | 1.53 | $63,270 | $61,720 |
| Washington | 80 | 0.0 | 1.13 | $78,740 | $81,380 |
| Ohio | 70 | 0.0 | 0.70 | $53,270 | $48,040 |
| Georgia | 60 | 0.0 | 0.65 | $66,500 | $63,360 |
| New Hampshire | 60 | 0.1 | 4.58 | $72,990 | $77,140 |
| Wisconsin | 60 | 0.0 | 1.16 | $55,660 | $49,000 |
| New Jersey | 50 | 0.0 | 0.59 | $63,980 | $57,570 |
| New York | 50 | 0.0 | 0.29 | $63,540 | $58,570 |
| Iowa | 40 | 0.0 | 1.18 | $59,980 | $56,510 |
| Louisiana | 40 | 0.0 | 1.07 | $69,650 | $67,950 |
| Michigan | 40 | 0.0 | 0.44 | $66,870 | $54,060 |
| Missouri | 40 | 0.0 | 0.79 | $70,360 | $72,630 |
| South Dakota | 40 | 0.1 | 4.45 | $56,790 | $52,890 |
| Utah | 40 | 0.0 | 1.13 | $65,390 | $65,960 |
| Virginia | 40 | 0.0 | 0.52 | $58,250 | $51,150 |
| Alaska | 30 | 0.1 | 5.47 | $72,190 | $72,240 |
| Oklahoma | 30 | 0.0 | 1.03 | $66,740 | $61,960 |
| Illinois | n/p | n/p | n/p | $58,740 | $50,600 |
| Massachusetts | n/p | n/p | n/p | $72,710 | $67,720 |
| Montana | n/p | n/p | n/p | $55,680 | $50,730 |
| West Virginia | n/p | n/p | n/p | $48,980 | $45,690 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Hydrologic Technicians stands number 791 by employment and number 428 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 30% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.2% of the group's 1,446,780 jobs. In 12 of the 29 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $58,570, 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
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA is the largest metro employer with 70 jobs, 2.4% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 70 | $72,290 | $68,490 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 60 | $64,370 | $60,580 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 60 | $55,940 | $51,230 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 50 | $58,030 | $56,420 |
| Bozeman, MT | 40 | $52,380 | $38,320 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 40 | $61,930 | $56,370 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 40 | $75,460 | $76,940 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | 40 | $61,800 | $51,170 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 40 | $79,450 | $83,710 |
| San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas, PR | 40 | $42,590 | $29,370 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
As a household number, $58,570 a year is $4,881 a month gross, $2,253 every two weeks, $1,126 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($47,450) to the 75th ($79,790) is worth $32,340 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. The next step from a gross figure is a net one: run the $4,881 monthly figure through the paycheck calculator applies your state's taxes, the salary calculator compares two offers in any unit, and the raise vs inflation calculator tells you whether a nominal raise is a real one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $64,427 would sit between the median ($58,570) and the 75th percentile ($79,790), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $47,450, is $11,120 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: Occupational Health and Safety Specialists, Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health, Chemists, Biological Technicians, Clinical and Counseling Psychologists, Life, Physical, and Social Science Technicians, 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
How much do Hydrologic Technicians make?
The median annual wage is $58,570 and the mean is $64,410 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $47,450 and $79,790 a year.
Which state pays Hydrologic Technicians the most?
By median annual wage, Washington leads the state table at $81,380, based on 80 jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Hydrologic Technicians are there in the United States?
BLS counted 2,940 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is California with 400 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Hydrologic Technicians?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $40,330 or less and one in ten earns $94,310 or more; the median, $58,570, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 2,940 counted jobs.