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Pay · 19-1013

Soil and Plant Scientists earn $78,850 a year at the midpoint

The middle of the pay scale for soil and plant scientists is $78,850. A typical start is nearer $61,660; the top tenth earn about $138,120.

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$78,850median a year · United States
$37.91an hour $87,720average 15,730people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$61,66025th $78,850median $103,74075th
$48,68010th percentile $138,12090th percentile
$61,660a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$107,140best-paying state · District of Columbia
$55,680lowest-paying state · Wyoming
+36%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 $107,140 in District of Columbia and $55,680 in Wyoming — a gap of $51,460 a year.

Soil and plant scientist 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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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.

Soil and Plant Scientists$78,850
Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists$103,410+$24,560 Life Scientists, All Other$93,750+$14,900 Food Scientists and Technologists$88,720+$9,870 Microbiologists$87,990+$9,140 Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists$76,780−$2,070 Foresters$76,400−$2,450

Soil and plant scientist 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.

$78,853a year

Writing a resume for soil and plant scientists

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  • Communicated research or project results to other professionals or the public or teach related courses, seminars, or workshops.
  • Developed methods of conserving or managing soil that can be applied by farmers or forestry companies.
  • Provided information or recommendations to farmers or other landowners regarding ways in which they can best use land, promote plant growth, or avoid or correct problems such as erosion.

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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.

No. 209 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 73% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 207 Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary $79,350
  2. 208 Chiropractors $79,200
  3. 209 Soil and Plant Scientists $78,850
  4. 210 Funeral Home Managers $78,790
  5. 211 Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists $78,760

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Soil and plant scientist wages in each state

The 39 states where the most people do this work, of 46 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.89 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
District of Columbia $107,140 $79,230 $79,230 — $156,750 60
Florida $103,240 $48,940 $48,940 — $125,250 270
Iowa $96,310 $56,270 $56,270 — $170,820 960
Idaho $95,150 $58,440 $58,440 — $167,960 540
New Jersey $91,970 $51,420 $51,420 — $128,920 130
California $91,930 $49,350 $49,350 — $154,830 1,440
Oregon $85,150 $63,960 $63,960 — $117,000 620
Maryland $85,020 $53,630 $53,630 — $173,440 200
Arizona $83,840 $40,250 $40,250 — $124,900 270
Indiana $80,030 $57,000 $57,000 — $154,990 440
Washington $79,970 $63,210 $63,210 — $131,220 520
Minnesota $79,610 $50,490 $50,490 — $136,160 750
Illinois $79,490 $48,160 $48,160 — $141,510 820
South Carolina $78,850 $37,900 $37,900 — $108,890 90
New York $77,800 $58,610 $58,610 — $134,230 260
Nebraska $77,500 $40,030 $40,030 — $121,060 640
North Carolina $76,330 $47,430 $47,430 — $136,830 570
Missouri $76,080 $46,710 $46,710 — $135,760 220
Colorado $75,430 $52,420 $52,420 — $288,300 460
Montana $73,920 $58,290 $58,290 — $105,580 230
Virginia $73,920 $51,040 $51,040 — $113,860 140
South Dakota $73,590 $51,980 $51,980 — $120,970 480
Mississippi $72,690 $45,880 $45,880 — $153,570 100
Nevada $71,450 $50,000 $50,000 — $114,990 90
Pennsylvania $70,550 $46,750 $46,750 — $124,560 200
New Mexico $69,480 $52,240 $52,240 — $102,860 90
Connecticut $67,630 $56,970 $56,970 — $130,820 200
Kentucky $67,340 $57,090 $57,090 — $107,010 140
Wisconsin $66,200 $44,620 $44,620 — $89,190 680
Kansas $65,670 $35,220 $35,220 — $129,130 380
Michigan $65,390 $50,640 $50,640 — $130,100 570
North Dakota $65,320 $53,590 $53,590 — $117,010 410
Georgia $65,170 $46,630 $46,630 — $123,040 210
Oklahoma $63,910 $35,550 $35,550 — $106,380 100
Alabama $63,010 $27,270 $27,270 — $146,810 110
Tennessee $61,950 $45,510 $45,510 — $103,620 370
Louisiana $60,200 $35,360 $35,360 — $106,150 170
Utah $59,900 $39,480 $39,480 — $100,420 90
Ohio $56,820 $39,150 $39,150 — $103,400 320

No estimate is published for 2 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Questions people ask most

What is a soil and plant scientist’s yearly income?

A soil and plant scientist makes a median of $78,850 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $61,660 and $103,740.

What is a soil and plant scientist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $37.91 an hour; the average is $87,720 a year.

What is the starting pay for a soil and plant scientist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $61,660 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $48,680.

Which state pays soil and plant scientists the most?

District of Columbia, with a median of $107,140 a year.

How many people work as soil and plant scientists?

About 15,730 in the United States — number 209 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $110 of what soil and plant scientists earn — $78,850 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations