The Average Salary of Seismology

Average Salary

• For its national employment report of May 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics categorized seismologists with other geoscientists, such as mineralogists, volcanologists and paleontologists. It calculated, having gathered pay data from over 30,000 practitioners, that the average yearly salary across the profession was $93,380. Geoscientists in the top bracket of earners, the highest 10 percent, had salaries of $160,910 or more, while their counterparts in the bottom 10 percent bracket earned $42,820 or less.
  
  

Salary by Industry

• Seismologists, like other geoscientists, work for private and public bodies. Of the former, the bureau listed oil and gas extraction as the most lucrative sector for the profession overall, paying an average wage of $132,210. Petroleum and coal products manufacturing was listed at $118,910, while support activities for mining paid $106,380. Geoscientists working for the federal executive branch of government earned an average salary of $95,580, while those in state government received $62,880, per annum.
  
  

Salary by Geography

• Location also affects the pay level that a seismologist achieves. Wage analysis website SalaryExpert.com, in May 2011, surveyed seismologist wage rates for practitioners based in some major cities. It found that New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, had the highest averages, at $90,985 and $84,968, respectively. Chicago, Illinois, was listed at $80,762, Phoenix, Arizona, at $74,158 and Orlando, Florida, at $73,219. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, across all industry sectors, a geoscientist was likely to earn the highest salary in Oklahoma, which averaged $129,870. Texas and Alaska completed the top three states, with averages of $125,070 and $103,880, while Colorado averaged $96,610, and Wyoming $67,710.
  
  

Outlook

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that across the geoscience disciplines, employment opportunities will grow by around 18 percent over the period from 2008 to 2018. That's faster than projected job growth across the country as a whole, which is expected to reach between 7 and 13 percent over the same time. Seismology, being a relatively small sector of the field, may not achieve quite such a growth rate, but the need for environmental management in the face of an expanding population will motivate demand for seismological knowledge, and should see salary levels for the occupation remain attractive.