CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
Best Jobs in America
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com rate careers on salary and job prospects.
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com
Physical scientist
Rank: 16 of 50
PREVIOUS  FULL LIST  NEXT
GRADES: Stress: B   /   Flexibility: B   /   Creativity: B   /   Difficulty: C

Average pay: $80,213
  Salary Total compensation
(includes bonus)
75% in this career make more than: $72,095 $72,560
50% in this career make more than: $78,426 $78,957
25% in this career make more than: $87,610 $88,393
Top potential compensation (5% make more):   $101,986

10-year job growth: 12.18%
Total jobs 2004: 250,417
Forecast 2014: 280,913
Average annual growth (including new jobs and net replacement): 9,368

Career description
This broad occupation includes Astronomers, Physicists, Atmospheric and Space Scientists, Chemists, Materials Scientists, Environmental Scientists, Geoscientists, Hydrologists, and all other.

Top 10: Highest-paying careers
  Average salary
Chief Executives $254,643
Physician/Surgeon $247,536
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons $211,766
Lawyer $153,923
Sales manager $135,903
Financial services sales agents $130,385
Financial managers $128,910
Dentist $122,883
Financial advisor $122,462
Natural sciences managers $116,504

Quick Quiz
Do you deserve a raise? Before plucking up the nerve to go in and ask for a raise, know what your assets and vulnerabilities are.

1. If you left the company, how easy or hard would it be for the company to replace you?
Easy      Hard


Best companies to work for
And the winners are... FORTUNE Magazine ranked America's top companies that rank highest with employees. See them all, with detailed company profiles and contact information.
• Top 10 winners
• Best in your state
• Best benefits
Salary wizard
Salary.com Free salary report
Job Category:

ZIP Code:

 OR, State / Metro Area:


Copyright 2000-2003 © Salary.com, Inc.

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.