Side-by-side distribution
Physicist
$138,747
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 35
Research Scientist
$214,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 52.7%
- Live roles
- 395
Highest-paying jobs
Quantum Physicist
Experimental Physicist
Health Physicist
Experimental Physicist
Atomic Physicist
Divertor Plasma Physicist
Senior Physicist - Resilience Engineering & Operations
Experimental Physicist (Accelerator)
Accelerator Physicist
Simulation Physicist - Ion Transport and Waveform Design
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
[Expression of Interest] Research Scientist / Engineer, Honesty
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment Science
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Audio
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment Science - London
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Thea Energy
|
$130,000 | 3 |
|
Pacific Fusion
|
$161,250 | 2 |
|
Acceleron Fusion
|
$130,000 | 2 |
|
IonQ
|
$129,946 | 2 |
|
Infleqtion
|
$170,500 | 1 |
|
Helion
|
$158,000 | 1 |
| LO Logiqal | $152,500 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$425,000 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 11 |
| LS Lila Sciences | $240,000 | 8 |
| SA SandboxAQ | $169,114 | 8 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 6 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $255,000 | 70 |
| New York | $231,000 | 39 |
| London | $228,341 | 6 |
| Seattle | $213,800 | 11 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| Boston | $197,500 | 7 |
| Los Angeles | $125,000 | 4 |
Physicist vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Physicist is $138,747 per year (typically $130,000–$153,875), versus $214,000 for Research Scientist ($177,227–$265,150). That puts Research Scientist about 54% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Physicist and Research Scientist 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.