Average Salary

• During its national salary survey of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collated pay information from 3,620 historians working throughout the United States. It calculated that the average yearly salary for the profession was $56,350, equivalent to $4,696 per month, or $27.09 an hour. Historians among the bottom 10 percent of earners received an average of $25,850, while their contemporaries in the top 10 percent earned $95,750. The bureau's average roughly corresponds to a survey of historian vacancies conducted by wage comparison website SalaryList in 2011, which put the annual average somewhat lower, at $49,965.
  
  

Salary by Industry

• Salary levels for historians are likely to vary according to which industry sector they find employment in. The bureau's survey indicated that those who worked as consultants, in a management, scientific or technical capacity, received the highest average wages, at $73,420, followed by those working in colleges, universities and professional schools, at $57,370. Museums, historical sites and similar institutions were listed at $48,490, while scientific research and development services offered an average of $46,740.
  
  

Salary by Geography

• Wage comparison website SalaryExpert.com analyzed historian salaries in some major American cities and listed the average pay in New York as $59,666, and that in Boston, Massachusetts, as $56,431. In contrast, Orlando, Florida, offered average wages of $46,872. The Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the District of Columbia as among the most lucrative locations for a historian to work in, paying an average of $84,520. Virginia and California also scored highly, at $76,730 and $74,280 respectively. Delaware and Montana have lower levels of pay, at $54,570 and $54,510, respectively.
  
  

Outlook

• The bureau of expects employment opportunities for historians to increase by approximately 11 percent in the years from 2008 to 2018. This is about as fast as the national projected growth rate across all professions, estimated to be between 7 and 13 percent over the same period. This overall growth should ensure salary levels remain competitive, but the bureau advises that competition for vacancies is keen among historians, and some may need to apply their skills to careers such as policy adviser or writer.