The top 15 highest paying cities for astronomers (ranked by average annual salary) are listed in Table 1. The entry level salary (as measured by the salary of the lowest 10% paid earners) and the number of employment of astronomers in those cities are also shown in the table. As shown in the table, with a annual salary of $176,280, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts is the highest paying city for astronomers. It is followed by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (average annual salary $170,720). The salary and employment information is computed from data published by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in April 2023 [1]. For more salary information of astronomers in a specific city, use the links in the table.
| Rank | City/Area | Average Salary i | # of Empl. i |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts | $176,280 |
50 | |
| 2 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California | $170,720 |
110 | |
| 3 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California | $170,690 |
130 | |
| 4 | Honolulu, Hawaii | $150,770 |
50 | |
| 5 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, District of Columbia | $143,060 |
480 | |
| 6 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, West Virginia | $138,160 |
330 | |
| 7 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California | $135,280 |
290 | |
| 8 | Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas | $130,670 |
40 | |
| 9 | Baltimore-Towson, Maryland | $129,790 |
380 | |
| 10 | Boulder, Colorado | $128,940 |
250 | |
|
| ||||
| 11 | Charlottesville, Virginia | $125,200 |
n/a | |
| 12 | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts | $113,320 |
140 | |
| 13 | Tucson, Arizona | $106,170 |
150 | |
| 14 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, California | $105,820 |
100 | |
| 15 | Hawaii-Maui-Kauai nonmetropolitan area, Hawaii | $80,250 |
30 | |