Occupation / job
Sociologists
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
At $106,030 against a $50,020 national midpoint, Sociologists pays 112% more than the typical American job — $56,010 a year of difference. Read the entry requirements before the number.
With 2,260 employed nationally, Sociologists is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
Social science suits people who can study human behaviour without needing the answer to be flattering, and who can defend a method to people who dislike the conclusion.
How long it takes to become one of the 2,260 people doing this is not something we have a source for. BLS counts and pays them; it does not record how they got there, and we would rather say so than guess.
Who should not do this
From $82,300 to $137,420 is $4,593 a month, or 1.7x bottom quarter to top. An ordinary spread like this is mostly years and geography; assume you enter near the bottom of it and that closing the gap takes a career rather than a move.
The 25th percentile is $82,300, $32,280 above the $50,020 typical American job. When even the floor is this high, the thing to investigate is the entry requirement rather than the pay.
Avoid it if you would find it hard to publish a finding that a funder, a discipline or the public did not want.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 2,260 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.
What the spread tells you
A 1.7x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $106,030 as where you might be after years in Sociologists, and $82,300 as where you would start.
The middle half of this field earns between $82,300 and $137,420. That is $55,120 of range, with $106,030 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $137,420. Reaching it from the $106,030 midpoint is $31,390 a year; reaching it from the $82,300 that the bottom quarter of Sociologists earn is $55,120.
From $106,030 it is $23,730 down to the bottom quarter and $31,390 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $50.97 at the midpoint for Sociologists, $39.56 at the 25th percentile and $66.06 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
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 Sociologists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $106,030 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Sociologists, the hourly figure is $106,030 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