Physicists

$172,250 puts Physicists among the highest medians BLS publishes, roughly 244% above the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Pay at this level always has a gate in front of it: a residency, a bar exam, a clearance, or a decade.

20,430 people do this work nationally. That is the size at which Physicists becomes a career rather than a post — enough employers in a normal city that leaving one of them is a decision rather than a crisis.

These roles suit people who want to work on physical systems at a level of rigour that industry rarely funds, and who accept the career shape that comes with that.

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

At 2.0x, from $111,720 to $222,760, the two halves of Physicists are not really doing the same job. $9,253 a month separates them, and something other than the title explains it.

The bottom quarter of this field earns $111,720 — $53.71 an hour, $61,700 above the $50,020 national midpoint. When even the worst-paid quarter of Physicists is this far ahead, the barrier to entry is doing the work of keeping it there.

Avoid it if your household cannot absorb the geography — the instruments and the posts are in a small number of places.

You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 20,430 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.

From $111,720 to $222,760 at 2.0x: something inside this occupation sorts people a long way apart. Identifying what it is — sector, employer, credential — is worth more than any general advice about Physicists.

In cash terms the middle half of Physicists runs $111,720 to $222,760 — $111,040 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $172,250.

Between $111,720 and $222,760 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $172,250. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $50,510; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $111,040.

There is $60,530 between $111,720 and $172,250, and $50,510 between $172,250 and $222,760. The lower half of the range is marginally the longer one — worth knowing if you would be entering Physicists at the bottom of it.

Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $82.81 at the midpoint for Physicists, $53.71 at the 25th percentile and $107.09 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.