Astronomers visa sponsorship salary

Across 169 certified work-visa filings classified under SOC 19-2011, the median wage for Astronomers is $84,500. The middle half falls between $72,000 and $102,000; the top decile begins at $117,724.

This page groups every job title employers filed under this occupation code, so it covers the same work described as Postdoctoral Research Associate, Postdoctoral Researcher, Project Scientist I and others.

Median: $84,500
25th pct: $72,000
75th pct: $102,000
90th pct: $117,724
Filings: 169

Who sponsors Astronomers

Ranked by number of certified filings for this occupation

Employers filing Astronomers, with wage percentiles
Employer	Filings	25th	Median	75th
National Radio Astronomy Observatory	10	$79,379	$81,099	$82,893
AURA Space Telescope Science Institute	8	$110,338	$118,356	$134,711
University of Colorado	8	$81,187	$95,494	$104,691
California Institute of Technology	7	$93,295	$102,906	$106,946
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy	6	$79,061	$89,192	$106,947
University of Maryland, College Park	6	$80,075	$84,661	$84,750
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	6	$82,000	$84,000	$90,875
Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii	6	$63,684	$67,215	$73,414
University of California, Berkeley	5	$100,900	$115,600	$157,200
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory	5	$103,717	$107,064	$119,355
The Trustees of Princeton University	5	$82,500	$83,000	$86,000
The University of Arizona	5	$75,000	$75,000	$80,178
University of Maryland, Baltimore County	4	$93,650	$103,670	$109,915
Southwest Research Institute	4	$95,000	$95,000	$135,634
The Simons Foundation Inc.	4	$90,750	$91,000	$91,000
California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory	4	$84,430	$86,030	$97,530
Johns Hopkins University	4	$75,755	$80,016	$88,571
University of Washington	4	$74,879	$78,458	$80,425
University of Central Florida	3	$106,750	$120,000	$120,000
American University	3	$99,441	$101,850	$104,397
University of Chicago	3	$81,499	$81,997	$83,023
Arizona State University	3	$68,964	$73,000	$79,470
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania	3	$71,900	$72,000	$75,000
University of Michigan	3	$67,475	$68,000	$79,000
California Association for Research in Astronomy	2	$94,000	$101,000	$108,000
Universities Space Research Association	2	$79,147	$86,294	$93,442
Northwestern University	2	$80,570	$82,140	$83,710
The University of Chicago	2	$75,968	$78,936	$81,904
University of Wisconsin System	2	$72,000	$72,000	$72,000
University of Minnesota	2	$70,000	$70,000	$70,000
Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC	2	$66,701	$66,703	$66,704
Fermi Research Alliance, LLC	2	$66,701	$66,703	$66,704
The University of Texas at Austin	2	$63,805	$65,870	$67,935
Villanova University	2	$65,775	$65,775	$65,775
The Ohio University	2	$63,232	$63,232	$63,232
Indiana University	2	$63,232	$63,232	$63,232

By state

Where this occupation is filed from

Astronomers filings and median wage by state
State	Filings	Median
California	25	$91,590
Maryland	23	$103,667
Colorado	14	$96,400
Hawaii	13	$79,061
Massachusetts	12	$97,257
Illinois	11	$79,000
Arizona	9	$75,000
New York	9	$89,461
Pennsylvania	6	$71,900
New Mexico	6	$82,295
New Jersey	5	$83,000
Texas	4	$71,000
Washington	4	$78,458
Virginia	4	$84,411
Florida	3	$120,000

Job titles in this occupation

The exact wording employers used on their filings

Job titles filed under SOC 19-2011
Job title	Filings	Median
Postdoctoral Research Associate	991	$63,342
Postdoctoral Researcher	299	$66,000
Project Scientist I	14	$103,223
Research Associate (astronomer)	5	$104,000
Astrophysicist	4	$105,391
Esa/aura Astronomer I	3	$117,000
Associate Scientist/astronomy	3	$83,491
Research Associate III (physics & Astronomy)	2	$68,609
Assistant Science Operations Specialist	2	$74,531
Member, School of Natural Sciences	2	$110,000
Assistant Astronomer	2	$121,525
Deputy Division Head/scientist	1	$90,015
Adaptive Optics Scientist / Engineer	1	$115,000
Variable Stars Researcher	1	$74,776
Postdoctoral Associate (astronomer)	1	$69,748
Astronomer	1	$121,159
Esa/aura Scientist	1	$110,451
Pan-starrs Junior Observer	1	$65,104
Coo Staff Astronomer	1	$118,976
Associate Astronomer	1	$78,806
Postdoctoral Research Scientist I (astronomer)	1	$90,988
Assistant Scientist/astronomy	1	$68,991
Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, Science	1	$72,000
Exoplanet Instrumentation Scientist	1	$69,326
Adaptive Optics Scientist	1	$160,000
Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Astronomy	1	$81,413
High Contrast Imaging Researcher	1	$81,848
Cosmic-ai Fellow	1	$63,232
Research Scientist (heliophysics)	1	$88,000
Associate Science Operations Specialist	1	$79,061
Instrumentation Program Scientist	1	$114,174
Exoplanet Instrument Research Specialist	1	$60,507
Program Director-r&d	1	$257,537
Service Observer	1	$80,178
Esa/aura Astronomer III	1	$226,000
Adaptive Optics (ao) Associate Scientist	1	$99,322
Eao/jcmt Instrumentation Scientist	1	$63,211
Post-doctoral Associate (astrophysicist)	1	$67,880
Nustar Calibration and Data Scientist	1	$102,906
Postdoctoral Fellow/scholar	1	$73,000
Staff Astronomer I	1	$87,000

SOC 19-2011 is the federal occupation code the employer assigned to these filings. It is chosen by the employer and reviewed by the Department of Labor, so it is more consistent than the free-text job title — but two companies can still classify similar work differently. Where a title looks misplaced, the wage level usually explains more of the gap than the code does.