Occupation / job
Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
A $53,350 midpoint puts Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians $277 a month ahead of the $50,020 typical American job. Real, but small enough that a change of employer or metro would move it as much as the occupation itself does.
National employment of 6,980 makes this a small field. Small fields are relationship markets: the people already in Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians tend to know who is hiring before the posting exists.
These roles suit people who want to be in the lab or the field without the grant-writing, and who take the craft of measurement seriously in its own right.
No verified preparation time is on file for Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $44,850 and a quarter above $72,110: a 1.6x ratio, $27,260 between the ends. That is an ordinary working spread, which also means experience and location explain most of it and there is no shortcut through the middle.
At $44,850, or $21.56 an hour, the bottom quarter of this work lands within $5,170 of the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — an unusually solid floor.
Avoid it if you would resent the ceiling — without the higher degree this role does not usually lead the work.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 6,980 figure counts people already working as Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A 1.6x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $53,350 as where you might be after years in Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians, and $44,850 as where you would start.
The middle half of this field earns between $44,850 and $72,110. That is $27,260 of range, with $53,350 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $72,110. Reaching it from the $53,350 midpoint is $18,760 a year; reaching it from the $44,850 that the bottom quarter of Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians earn is $27,260.
The upper half of the middle range — $53,350 to $72,110, or $18,760 — is far longer than the lower half at $8,500. In a shape like this an average would flatter Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians considerably, and would describe nobody.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians is $25.64 an hour. The quarters sit at $21.56 and $34.66, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $53,350 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians, the hourly figure is $53,350 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else