Side-by-side distribution
Chemist
$78,260
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 28.3%
- Live roles
- 247
Physicist
$188,125
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 38.6%
- Live roles
- 220
Highest-paying jobs
Clinical Chemist
Medicinal Chemist
Senior Materials Chemist
Polymer Chemist/Plating Expert
Process Chemist
DARPA SETA Physical Chemist/Materials Scientist SME
Computational Chemist (Machine Learning) I / II
Computational Chemist - GPU Acceleration
Computational Synthetic Chemist
R&D Polymer Chemist
Highest-paying jobs
Sr. Medical Physicist (Palm Springs, CA)
Senior Medical Physicist Radiation Therapy
Med Physicist Oncology Sr
Physicist - Radiation Oncology
Medical Physicist - per diem
Medical Physicist
Medical Physicist - per diem
Medical Physicist
Medical Physicist
Medical Physicist (Yakima, WA)
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Republic Services
|
$78,333 | 7 |
Abbott
|
$59,488 | 6 |
Cardinal Health
|
$73,304 | 4 |
| IT ITW | $104,500 | 3 |
|
Amentum
|
$80,000 | 3 |
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
|
$56,160 | 3 |
Veolia
|
$40,593 | 3 |
PPG
|
$103,875 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Siemens Healthineers
|
$200,060 | 14 |
|
Applied Materials
|
$164,000 | 13 |
|
Advocate Health
|
$234,572 | 4 |
|
Albany Medical Center
|
$256,344 | 3 |
| AD AdventHealth | $231,248 | 3 |
Sanford Health
|
$222,040 | 3 |
Infleqtion
|
$211,000 | 3 |
Rochester Regional Health
|
$127,500 | 3 |
Physicist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | $211,000 | 3 |
Chemist vs Physicist: which pays more?
The median for Chemist is $78,260 per year (typically $63,960–$105,660), versus $188,125 for Physicist ($142,500–$222,040). That puts Physicist about 140% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chemist and Physicist are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.