Soil and Plant Scientists Salary and Pay
How much do Soil and Plant Scientists make?
The median Soil and Plant Scientists worker earns $71,410 a year ($34.33), and the mean annual wage is $83,040. BLS counted 16,600 people in this occupation in May 2024. The middle half of earners make between $57,950 and $98,110.
Soil and Plant Scientists 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
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $71,410 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 | $45,320 | $21.79 |
| 25th percentile | $57,950 | $27.86 |
| Median (50th) | $71,410 | $34.33 |
| 75th percentile | $98,110 | $47.17 |
| 90th percentile | $131,440 | $63.19 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($45,320) to the 90th ($131,440). BLS suppresses cells that fail its reliability rules (n/p here) and caps the highest wages at $239,200+ a year or $115.00+ an hour; in this ladder that top code appears at the very top rows only.
Employment and concentration
With 16,600 jobs nationally, Soil and Plant Scientists make up 0.01% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: California alone holds 1,710 of those jobs, the top three states hold 20.4%, and the deepest concentration sits in North Dakota (location quotient 8.30, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
One in ten workers in this field earns $45,320 or less, and one in ten earns $131,440 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 2.9 to 1 and the annual gap is $86,120. The mean ($83,040) versus median ($71,410) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts California first at 1,710 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, District of Columbia would lead at $100,820. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,710 | 0.1 | 0.88 | $91,660 | $80,960 |
| Texas | 910 | 0.1 | 0.61 | n/p | n/p |
| Iowa | 770 | 0.5 | 4.57 | $83,730 | $72,440 |
| Nebraska | 770 | 0.8 | 7.00 | $71,200 | $67,150 |
| Wisconsin | 650 | 0.2 | 2.07 | $67,990 | $63,770 |
| Minnesota | 640 | 0.2 | 2.04 | $71,670 | $68,260 |
| North Carolina | 620 | 0.1 | 1.18 | $74,040 | $68,240 |
| Washington | 610 | 0.2 | 1.59 | $89,480 | $82,360 |
| Colorado | 530 | 0.2 | 1.70 | $86,620 | $68,420 |
| Indiana | 520 | 0.2 | 1.53 | $88,640 | $79,820 |
| Oregon | 490 | 0.2 | 2.29 | $83,380 | $79,460 |
| Georgia | 470 | 0.1 | 0.90 | $76,390 | $75,250 |
| Idaho | 430 | 0.5 | 4.67 | $86,400 | $90,400 |
| Michigan | 420 | 0.1 | 0.88 | $70,300 | $61,710 |
| South Dakota | 400 | 0.9 | 8.26 | $66,990 | $61,970 |
| North Dakota | 380 | 0.9 | 8.30 | $73,770 | $61,790 |
| Arizona | 340 | 0.1 | 0.98 | $66,080 | $52,830 |
| Kansas | 340 | 0.2 | 2.21 | $70,630 | $62,530 |
| Florida | 290 | 0.0 | 0.27 | $83,430 | $77,970 |
| Ohio | 270 | 0.0 | 0.45 | $80,500 | $79,220 |
| Pennsylvania | 260 | 0.0 | 0.41 | $71,610 | $64,650 |
| Tennessee | 260 | 0.1 | 0.75 | $67,520 | $63,420 |
| Maryland | 250 | 0.1 | 0.85 | $86,410 | $74,820 |
| Missouri | 250 | 0.1 | 0.81 | $76,070 | $70,450 |
| Montana | 250 | 0.5 | 4.51 | $77,310 | $74,330 |
| South Carolina | 240 | 0.1 | 0.96 | $66,300 | $51,550 |
| Virginia | 220 | 0.1 | 0.50 | $79,760 | $71,030 |
| New York | 200 | 0.0 | 0.20 | $79,030 | $70,120 |
| Kentucky | 180 | 0.1 | 0.86 | $70,190 | $63,700 |
| Connecticut | 170 | 0.1 | 0.95 | $94,210 | $88,040 |
| New Jersey | 160 | 0.0 | 0.34 | $84,010 | $85,020 |
| Oklahoma | 140 | 0.1 | 0.78 | $62,750 | $61,380 |
| New Mexico | 130 | 0.2 | 1.42 | $68,250 | $65,730 |
| Alabama | 90 | 0.0 | 0.38 | $78,900 | $69,200 |
| Delaware | 80 | 0.2 | 1.61 | $71,960 | $64,300 |
| Utah | 70 | 0.0 | 0.38 | $68,650 | $72,550 |
| District of Columbia | 60 | 0.1 | 0.74 | $104,940 | $100,820 |
| Louisiana | 60 | 0.0 | 0.27 | $85,210 | $74,620 |
| Maine | 60 | 0.1 | 0.90 | $90,380 | $88,300 |
| Mississippi | 60 | 0.1 | 0.51 | $94,740 | $79,790 |
| Wyoming | 60 | 0.2 | 2.06 | $83,850 | $77,500 |
| Alaska | 50 | 0.1 | 1.31 | n/p | n/p |
| Nevada | 40 | 0.0 | 0.24 | $76,740 | $76,940 |
| West Virginia | 40 | 0.1 | 0.55 | $62,000 | $42,730 |
| Arkansas | n/p | n/p | n/p | $95,400 | $84,510 |
| Illinois | n/p | n/p | n/p | $64,310 | $60,970 |
| Massachusetts | n/p | n/p | n/p | $64,810 | $64,490 |
| Vermont | n/p | n/p | n/p | $68,810 | $62,300 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Soil and Plant Scientists stands number 592 by employment and number 278 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 15% less than its group median, and it supplies 1.1% of the group's 1,446,780 jobs. In 21 of the 46 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $71,410, 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
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is the largest metro employer with 320 jobs, 1.9% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 320 | $69,620 | $63,680 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 320 | $78,860 | $76,200 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 300 | $89,710 | $78,620 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 280 | $100,570 | $92,310 |
| Lansing-East Lansing, MI | 260 | $63,810 | $61,710 |
| Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | 240 | $92,330 | $86,120 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 220 | $97,450 | $103,620 |
| Fargo, ND-MN | 210 | $70,370 | $61,790 |
| Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | 210 | $73,450 | $63,680 |
| Madison, WI | 210 | $73,180 | $72,050 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Soil and Plant Scientists paycheck, gross, is $2,747 every two weeks on an annual $71,410, which is $5,951 a month and $1,373 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($57,950) to the 75th ($98,110) is worth $40,160 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 $78,551 would sit between the median ($71,410) and the 75th percentile ($98,110), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $57,950, is $13,460 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
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Physical Scientists, All Other, Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers, Physicists, Microbiologists, Forensic Science Technicians, Psychologists, All Other. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median salary for Soil and Plant Scientists?
$71,410 a year ($34.33), the middle wage among 16,600 counted workers in the BLS May 2024 estimates. The 75th percentile is $98,110 and the 90th is $131,440.
Where are Soil and Plant Scientists jobs concentrated?
By headcount, California leads with 1,710 jobs; by concentration, North Dakota leads with a location quotient of 8.30, meaning the occupation is 8.30 times as dense there as nationally.
What do the top 10% of Soil and Plant Scientists earn?
$131,440 a year or more. The gap between the 90th percentile and the median ($71,410) is the size of the senior and specialist premium in this occupation.
How does EveryCalc get Soil and Plant Scientists 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.