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Pay · 19-4013

Food Science Technicians earn $52,130 a year at the midpoint

Starting pay is close to the middle here: the 25th percentile is $46,020 against a median of $52,130, so the first years are not a long climb.

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$52,130median a year · United States
$25.06an hour $56,660average 14,600people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$46,02025th $52,130median $63,27075th
$39,82010th percentile $78,82090th percentile
$46,020a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$65,360best-paying state · Virginia
$39,480lowest-paying state · South Carolina
+25%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.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • 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.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $46,020, is within 12% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $65,360 in Virginia and $39,480 in South Carolina — a gap of $25,880 a year.

Food science technician earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 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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Food science technician pay rate, hourly and yearly

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

$52,125a year

Food science technician wages across the states

The 31 states where the most people do this work, of 38 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.64 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Virginia $65,360 $47,250 $47,250 — $78,700 150
Kentucky $64,770 $42,170 $42,170 — $84,410 160
Washington $62,070 $45,930 $45,930 — $79,850 660
Illinois $60,820 $46,860 $46,860 — $104,280 290
Missouri $59,570 $41,430 $41,430 — $83,570 150
Nevada $59,070 $47,220 $47,220 — $66,590 110
Colorado $58,540 $52,340 $52,340 — $82,140 270
Florida $58,500 $37,620 $37,620 — $91,820 250
Minnesota $57,940 $42,010 $42,010 — $74,270 380
Maryland $57,880 $46,320 $46,320 — $77,520 280
Ohio $57,060 $41,000 $41,000 — $86,300 230
Massachusetts $56,850 $44,900 $44,900 — $73,300 260
New Jersey $56,730 $38,920 $38,920 — $77,450 590
Wisconsin $55,690 $40,600 $40,600 — $73,030 540
New York $55,470 $44,270 $44,270 — $75,080 580
California $54,200 $40,790 $40,790 — $76,330 3,990
Georgia $53,150 $33,040 $33,040 — $80,620 260
Michigan $52,130 $39,290 $39,290 — $68,610 250
Iowa $50,740 $40,200 $40,200 — $66,370 420
Oregon $50,590 $41,090 $41,090 — $63,260 820
Idaho $48,980 $37,980 $37,980 — $65,580 560
South Dakota $48,760 $33,790 $33,790 — $54,440 100
North Carolina $48,640 $39,740 $39,740 — $63,280 130
Nebraska $48,530 $44,840 $44,840 — $59,670 170
Pennsylvania $48,060 $37,590 $37,590 — $62,200 590
Texas $47,760 $37,040 $37,040 — $76,130 900
Arkansas $46,810 $42,600 $42,600 — $69,120 140
New Mexico $46,500 $35,960 $35,960 — $51,480 120
Utah $45,110 $41,240 $41,240 — $84,930 80
Indiana $44,630 $40,410 $40,410 — $68,550 530
Kansas $39,930 $33,390 $33,390 — $71,320 60

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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A resume for food science technicians

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

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  • Tasted or smelled foods or beverages to ensure that flavors meet specifications or to select samples with specific characteristics.
  • Measured, tested, or weighed bottles, cans, or other containers to ensure that hardness, strength, or dimensions meet specifications.
  • Maintained records of testing results or other documents as required by state or other governing agencies.

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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.

Ranked 486 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 38% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 484 Credit Counselors $52,230
  2. 485 Paperhangers $52,140
  3. 486 Food Science Technicians $52,130
  4. 487 Directors, Religious Activities and Education $52,100
  5. 488 Fallers $52,100

Nearby work, and what it pays

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

Food Science Technicians$52,130
Biological Technicians$57,510+$5,380 Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health$55,090+$2,960 Geological Technicians, Except Hydrologic Technicians$53,350+$1,220 Agricultural Technicians$49,630−$2,500

Questions people ask most

What is a food science technician’s yearly income?

A food science technician makes a median of $52,130 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $46,020 and $63,270.

What is a food science technician’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $25.06 an hour; the average is $56,660 a year.

What is the starting pay for a food science technician?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $46,020 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $39,820.

Which state pays food science technicians the most?

Virginia, with a median of $65,360 a year.

How many people work as food science technicians?

About 14,600 in the United States — number 486 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays about the same

Median pay within $130 of what food science technicians earn — $52,130 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations