Atmospheric and Space Scientists

$99,070 is $4,087 a month above the $50,020 the typical American job pays. Differences of that size in Atmospheric and Space Scientists are held in place by a barrier — a licence, a residency, a clearance — and the barrier is the real subject of this page.

Nationally 10,000 people do this. That is a real occupation with a thin local presence — enough that Atmospheric and Space Scientists is a career, not enough that you can assume a second employer down the road.

Physical science suits people who are content that the instrument, the sample and the funding cycle set the pace, and who find the method satisfying independent of the finding.

We carry no verified training length for Atmospheric and Space Scientists — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.

A quarter of the field earns under $73,350 and a quarter over $129,960: $56,610 between them, a ratio of 1.8x. Wide enough that the first offer you get tells you more about your prospects than the median does.

The bottom quarter of this field earns $73,350 — $35.26 an hour, $23,330 above the $50,020 national midpoint. When even the worst-paid quarter of Atmospheric and Space Scientists is this far ahead, the barrier to entry is doing the work of keeping it there.

Avoid it if you cannot follow the work geographically; the facilities are where they are.

There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 10,000 people employed as Atmospheric and Space Scientists; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.

At 1.8x, the distribution for Atmospheric and Space Scientists is open enough that specialisation starts to pay. The distance from $73,350 to $129,960 is mostly what you can do that others in the same title cannot.

In cash terms the middle half of Atmospheric and Space Scientists runs $73,350 to $129,960 — $56,610 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $99,070.

Between $73,350 and $129,960 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $99,070. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $30,890; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $56,610.

From $99,070 it is $25,720 down to the bottom quarter and $30,890 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.

On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Atmospheric and Space Scientists is $47.62 an hour. The quarters sit at $35.26 and $62.48, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.