Life Scientists, All Other Salary and Pay
How much do Life Scientists, All Other make?
Median pay for Life Scientists, All Other is $87,800 a year ($42.21); the mean is $101,940. The occupation employed 7,320 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $66,340 to $123,720.
Life Scientists, All Other salary data without the self-reported noise: BLS surveyed the employers, and this page prints the ladder, the states, and the metros exactly as the survey published them.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Gross pay only, before taxes and benefits. The picker starts at this occupation's median ($87,800); the custom box accepts any annual figure, which is how you price an offer letter against the ladder below.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $52,360 | $25.17 |
| 25th percentile | $66,340 | $31.89 |
| Median (50th) | $87,800 | $42.21 |
| 75th percentile | $123,720 | $59.48 |
| 90th percentile | $168,860 | $81.18 |
Read the ladder vertically: each row is the wage of the Life Scientists, All Other worker at that point in the distribution, so $123,720 at the 75th percentile means three quarters of the occupation earns less. Figures BLS cannot publish appear as n/p, and its top code prints as $239,200+.
Employment and concentration
With 7,320 jobs nationally, Life Scientists, All Other make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: North Carolina alone holds 1,060 of those jobs, the top three states hold 32.8%, and the deepest concentration sits in Louisiana (location quotient 5.07, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
The spread matters as much as the center. Earners at the 90th percentile make $168,860, which is 3.2 times the $52,360 at the 10th, a difference of $116,500 annually. Because the mean wage ($101,940) sits above the median ($87,800), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 30 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is District of Columbia at $164,260; the jobs leader is North Carolina:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 1,060 | 0.2 | 4.57 | $120,680 | $123,500 |
| California | 880 | 0.0 | 1.03 | $149,340 | $128,750 |
| Louisiana | 460 | 0.2 | 5.07 | $86,630 | $73,870 |
| Virginia | 460 | 0.1 | 2.40 | $95,450 | $96,970 |
| Minnesota | 430 | 0.1 | 3.13 | $84,620 | $70,400 |
| Maryland | 380 | 0.1 | 2.93 | $108,890 | $99,320 |
| Pennsylvania | 330 | 0.1 | 1.14 | $76,240 | $72,800 |
| Georgia | 280 | 0.1 | 1.22 | $73,330 | $79,180 |
| Washington | 240 | 0.1 | 1.40 | $97,220 | $95,640 |
| Illinois | 230 | 0.0 | 0.78 | $62,040 | $54,170 |
| New York | 230 | 0.0 | 0.50 | $84,220 | $75,900 |
| Oregon | 210 | 0.1 | 2.26 | $112,220 | $106,370 |
| Idaho | 190 | 0.2 | 4.69 | $85,490 | $97,020 |
| Arizona | 130 | 0.0 | 0.86 | $106,680 | $103,460 |
| Massachusetts | 130 | 0.0 | 0.76 | $121,890 | $129,210 |
| Kentucky | 110 | 0.1 | 1.12 | $76,690 | $73,470 |
| New Jersey | 100 | 0.0 | 0.50 | $110,710 | $104,500 |
| Florida | 90 | 0.0 | 0.20 | n/p | n/p |
| Michigan | 80 | 0.0 | 0.40 | $66,290 | $60,500 |
| Alaska | 70 | 0.2 | 4.35 | $77,690 | $68,880 |
| Indiana | 60 | 0.0 | 0.37 | n/p | n/p |
| Alabama | 50 | 0.0 | 0.50 | $107,210 | $107,050 |
| Montana | 50 | 0.1 | 2.09 | $67,370 | $63,330 |
| Tennessee | 50 | 0.0 | 0.32 | n/p | n/p |
| Hawaii | 40 | 0.1 | 1.32 | $84,560 | $75,000 |
| North Dakota | 40 | 0.1 | 1.74 | $68,750 | $60,730 |
| Connecticut | n/p | n/p | n/p | $81,970 | $68,700 |
| District of Columbia | n/p | n/p | n/p | $166,630 | $164,260 |
| Ohio | n/p | n/p | n/p | $75,720 | $51,220 |
| Texas | n/p | n/p | n/p | $87,700 | $82,430 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Life Scientists, All Other stands number 724 by employment and number 170 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 4% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.5% of the group's 1,446,780 jobs. In 12 of the 27 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $87,800, 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
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the largest metro employer with 480 jobs, 6.6% of the national total. Employment rank and pay rank are different lists: the second table re-sorts metros with at least 500 jobs in this occupation by mean pay, the floor keeping a handful of workers from posing as a market.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 480 | n/p | n/p |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 440 | $130,100 | $125,820 |
| Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 370 | $119,500 | $109,540 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | 300 | $126,070 | $131,110 |
| New Orleans-Metairie, LA | 290 | $83,080 | $65,330 |
| Richmond, VA | 210 | $76,830 | $68,530 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 170 | $96,150 | $89,540 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 160 | $108,710 | $105,090 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 140 | $119,970 | $125,840 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 130 | $80,550 | $64,500 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Life Scientists, All Other paycheck, gross, is $3,377 every two weeks on an annual $87,800, which is $7,317 a month and $1,688 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($66,340) to the 75th ($123,720) is worth $57,380 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Gross is a starting point, not a budget: the paycheck calculator nets it down by state, an offer comparison lives in the salary calculator, and the raise vs inflation calculator separates a real raise from a nominal one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $96,580 would sit between the median ($87,800) and the 75th percentile ($123,720), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $66,340, is $21,460 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: Forensic Science Technicians, Psychologists, All Other, Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists, Soil and Plant Scientists, Economists, Food Scientists and Technologists. 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 Life Scientists, All Other?
$87,800 a year ($42.21), the middle wage among 7,320 counted workers in the BLS May 2024 estimates. The 75th percentile is $123,720 and the 90th is $168,860.
Where are Life Scientists, All Other jobs concentrated?
By headcount, North Carolina leads with 1,060 jobs; by concentration, Louisiana leads with a location quotient of 5.07, meaning the occupation is 5.07 times as dense there as nationally.
What do the top 10% of Life Scientists, All Other earn?
$168,860 a year or more. The gap between the 90th percentile and the median ($87,800) is the size of the senior and specialist premium in this occupation.
How does EveryCalc get Life Scientists, All Other 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.