Physics
2,033 federal civilian employees in May 2026, as the Office of Personnel Management published them. OPM publishes a salary for 579 of them, and the median of those is $185,193.
Physics, May 2026
- 2,033
- Employees
- 579
- Salary published
- 28.5% of them. Every pay figure here divides by this.
- 1,435
- Salary withheld
- 70.6%, under OPM's own release policy.
- 19
- Neither withheld nor averaged
- Paid hourly, per diem or on another basis, or with no pay recorded. Not withheld, and not in the median.
- $185,193
- Median salary
- Annual rate, over those paid per annum. It excludes overtime, awards and bonuses.
A tenth of published salaries are under $116,362 and a tenth over $197,200.
Physics, from September 2015 to July 2026
A point a year and the most recent months, which is what the file this page reads keeps. The share with a published salary is beside each, because a change in the median can be a change in whose pay is withheld. A month OPM flags as incomplete is marked provisional.
1 more column on a wider screen
| Month | Employees | Salary published |
|---|---|---|
| September 2015 | 2,391 | 32.2% |
| September 2016 | 2,416 | 31.9% |
| September 2017 | 2,432 | 31.6% |
| September 2018 | 2,425 | 30.6% |
| September 2019 | 2,441 | 30.0% |
| September 2020 | 2,451 | 30.1% |
| September 2021 | 2,441 | 30.3% |
| September 2022 | 2,375 | 30.8% |
| September 2023 | 2,352 | 31.0% |
| September 2024 | 2,334 | 30.4% |
| September 2025 | 2,190 | 29.2% |
| May 2026 | 2,033 | 28.5% |
| June 2026 (provisional) | 2,023 | 28.7% |
| July 2026 (provisional) | 2,009 | 28.8% |
How the federal salary figures are made
Sources
- OPM Federal Workforce Data — Federal Employment Raw Data (EHRI Status) — U.S. Office of Personnel Management · Public domain — U.S. Government work · retrieved September 26, 2026
Data retrieved