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Pay · 19-1032

Foresters earn $76,400 a year at the midpoint

The middle of the pay scale for foresters is $76,400. A typical start is nearer $62,710; the top tenth earn about $109,700.

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$76,400median a year · United States
$36.73an hour $79,170average 10,430people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$62,71025th $76,400median $91,64075th
$50,79010th percentile $109,70090th percentile
$62,710a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$107,120best-paying state · California
$50,990lowest-paying state · Oklahoma
+40%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $107,120 in California and $50,990 in Oklahoma — a gap of $56,130 a year.

Forester earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Forester wages in each state

The 43 states where the most people do this work, of 44 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.10 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $107,120 $71,110 $71,110 — $156,750 820
Massachusetts $89,650 $63,110 $63,110 — $105,350 130
Alaska $87,210 $61,840 $61,840 — $104,680 80
South Carolina $86,780 $59,310 $59,310 — $102,670 250
Maryland $86,100 $35,970 $35,970 — $109,500 120
Connecticut $84,820 $71,400 $71,400 — $98,730 60
Iowa $83,000 $68,470 $68,470 — $104,720 50
Illinois $82,160 $60,230 $60,230 — $120,150 220
Oregon $81,450 $60,600 $60,600 — $107,170 670
Vermont $80,750 $61,400 $61,400 — $100,930 80
Texas $80,370 $60,590 $60,590 — $101,980 210
Alabama $79,530 $50,240 $50,240 — $95,400 240
Washington $78,460 $59,830 $59,830 — $119,320 950
Pennsylvania $78,280 $47,590 $47,590 — $111,970 310
North Carolina $77,870 $46,800 $46,800 — $96,900 —
Georgia $76,970 $31,460 $31,460 — $109,700 370
Minnesota $76,490 $57,910 $57,910 — $105,080 390
Colorado $76,400 $52,090 $52,090 — $97,410 210
Michigan $75,920 $57,620 $57,620 — $98,570 340
Utah $75,210 $61,590 $61,590 — $94,560 40
District of Columbia $74,710 $74,700 $74,700 — $103,330 —
New York $73,710 $58,240 $58,240 — $108,580 280
Ohio $73,320 $53,270 $53,270 — $96,260 160
Tennessee $71,990 $56,950 $56,950 — $91,870 120
Virginia $71,990 $47,200 $47,200 — $100,610 340
Mississippi $71,280 $44,520 $44,520 — $134,980 110
Arkansas $69,240 $47,750 $47,750 — $91,170 130
New Mexico $69,240 $57,910 $57,910 — $87,190 50
Wyoming $68,180 $61,110 $61,110 — $88,880 60
Kansas $67,540 $57,240 $57,240 — $87,230 40
Arizona $67,200 $49,940 $49,940 — $88,710 70
Montana $67,200 $50,900 $50,900 — $86,260 240
Maine $66,480 $54,070 $54,070 — $87,810 70
Wisconsin $66,010 $48,780 $48,780 — $88,090 570
Idaho $65,170 $48,110 $48,110 — $80,770 280
New Hampshire $65,170 $46,800 $46,800 — $97,670 110
South Dakota $64,460 $50,110 $50,110 — $80,700 120
Florida $64,130 $49,920 $49,920 — $112,660 380
Missouri $63,220 $48,240 $48,240 — $86,630 120
West Virginia $62,550 $40,910 $40,910 — $86,820 100
Indiana $61,110 $48,150 $48,150 — $97,020 160
Kentucky $56,460 $49,940 $49,940 — $88,710 120
Oklahoma $50,990 $48,280 $48,280 — $102,300 120

No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Forester pay rate, hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$76,398a year

A resume for foresters

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

ESRI ArcGIS softwareGeographic information system GIS systemsESRI ArcViewMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft Office softwareMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Active Server Pages ASPGlobal positioning system GPS software
  • Established short- and long-term plans for management of forest lands and forest resources.
  • Planned cutting programs and managed timber sales from harvested areas, assisting companies to achieve production goals.
  • Determined methods of cutting and removing timber with minimum waste and environmental damage.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Foresters$76,400
Life Scientists, All Other$93,750+$17,350 Food Scientists and Technologists$88,720+$12,320 Microbiologists$87,990+$11,590 Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists$76,780+$380

No. 244 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 69% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 242 Boilermakers $76,410
  2. 243 Dietitians and nutritionists $76,400
  3. 244 Foresters $76,400
  4. 245 First-Line Supervisors of Protective Service Workers, All Other $76,400
  5. 246 Computer Network Support Specialists $76,220

Questions people often ask

What is a forester’s yearly income?

A forester makes a median of $76,400 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $62,710 and $91,640.

What is a forester’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $36.73 an hour; the average is $79,170 a year.

What is the starting pay for a forester?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $62,710 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $50,790.

Which state pays foresters the most?

California, with a median of $107,120 a year.

How many people work as foresters?

About 10,430 in the United States — number 244 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $290 of what foresters earn — $76,400 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations