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Chemist: what the job actually is

Testing and studying what substances are made of and how they behave, in a laboratory, a plant or a research group.

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Chemist: quick facts

Chemist salary in Ontario: the median pay is $39.49 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$39.49 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$27.09 to $66.67 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
8,200
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 21101. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Studying the composition of substances and how they change, and then using that to test products, solve a production problem or develop something new.
  • Many chemists work in quality control and analysis. They test samples against a standard and report whether a batch passes. Others work in research and development, trying to make a better material, medicine or process.
  • Job Bank's Ontario page says a bachelor's degree in chemistry, biochemistry or a related discipline is the minimum, and that a master's or doctoral degree is usually required for a research chemist.
  • Much of the job is measuring, recording and writing it down in a way someone else can check. The results matter only if the method is clean.
  • Safety is part of the work all the time: knowing what is in the bottle, what it does to skin and lungs, and what to do if it spills.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 8:00 — Lab coat, goggles, gloves. Check the instrument log to see whether somebody left the machine in a state.
  2. 8:20 — Prepare samples from yesterday's batch. Weigh, dissolve, dilute. Careless weighing ruins the whole afternoon.
  3. 9:30 — Load the instrument and start the run. Now there is waiting, which you use for paperwork.
  4. 10:30 — Look at the first results. One sample is outside its limit. Check the method before you check the sample.
  5. 11:30 — Repeat the suspicious sample. It is the sample, not the method.
  6. 12:15 — Lunch, somewhere that is not the lab.
  7. 13:00 — Meeting with production. They want to know whether the batch can ship and you want to be sure before you say yes.
  8. 14:00 — Write up the result so someone else could repeat it exactly.
  9. 15:30 — Order supplies, check a calibration, label what you prepared today so it does not become tomorrow's mystery.
  10. 16:30 — Clean the bench and log the instrument.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like finding out exactly what something is, and not stopping at a good guess.
  • You are patient and careful, and you check the same thing twice without being asked.
  • You enjoy writing down what you did so clearly that somebody else could repeat it.
  • You are curious about why materials behave as they do, including when the answer takes months.
  • You are comfortable following strict safety rules every single day.
You may hate this if
  • You get impatient with repetitive measuring. A lot of lab work is the same careful steps many times.
  • You want fast, visible results. Experiments often fail, and failure is mostly an ordinary Tuesday.
  • You dislike wearing protective gear and following written procedures to the letter.
  • You do not want years of university first. Research chemist roles usually ask for a graduate degree, according to Job Bank.
  • You want to be outdoors or on your feet moving around. Many chemist jobs are indoors, in one lab, for most of the day.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. A chemistry degree

    Job Bank's Ontario page says a bachelor's degree in chemistry, biochemistry or a related discipline is required. The degree page on this site for physical sciences (/careers/degrees/physical-sciences) describes the wider field. Check a university's own programme page for the courses it asks for in high school.

  2. A graduate degree for research

    Job Bank says a master's or doctoral degree is usually required for employment as a research chemist. A bachelor's degree can lead to testing and quality roles, but check each job ad and do not assume.

  3. A voluntary title, not a licence

    Job Bank lists Chartered Chemist as a title regulated through the Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario (ACPO) and says getting it is voluntary. ACPO's own page says members may use the C.Chem. stamp on professional reports. ACPO's page did not set out the requirements for the title, so read ACPO directly before relying on this.

  4. Co-op and lab experience

    Co-op and summer research placements are how many students first see the real work. Ask a university which of its science programmes include them.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Requirements for chemists in Ontario · Job Bank — Ontario wage report for chemists · Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario (ACPO)

The money

Chemist salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$27.09
Low (hourly)
$39.49
Median (hourly)
$66.67
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 21101. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Chemist wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • Several positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

8,200
people work in this job in Ontario
49%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Chemists job prospects in Ontario (NOC 21101). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take the Grade 11 and 12 chemistry, physics and maths courses. Most science degrees ask for them as prerequisites.
  • Do careful lab work on purpose: write your method clearly enough that someone else could follow it.
  • Ask your science teacher whether any local lab, university or college runs a science fair, open house or student visit.
  • Look at the first-year chemistry course outlines on a university website and see whether the topics make you curious or tired.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Read a real chemistry method and plan the safe version

About 60 minutes
  1. Search for a free safe kitchen chemistry experiment from a school, museum or university site, such as testing the acidity of common liquids with red cabbage juice.
  2. Before you start, write down what you expect to happen and why.
  3. Do only what the instructions say, with ordinary kitchen items, and record each result in a small table.
  4. Compare the results with your guess and write two lines about any surprise.

What it tells you. If you liked writing the table and chasing the surprise, you are probably the kind of person who enjoys careful measurement, and a chemistry course is worth taking seriously. If you found the recording step tedious and only wanted the colour change, a more hands-on or creative science path may suit you better, and that is fine to learn now rather than in second-year university.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “How much of your work is research and how much is testing against a standard?”
  2. “What degree do people in your lab have, and did it matter for getting hired?”
  3. “What is the most boring part of the job, and what is the best part?”
  4. “Does your employer care about the Chartered Chemist title?”
  5. “How do you know when a result is wrong?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Sometimes, but it is uncommon. Job Bank counts a small share of this group as self-employed, and independent testing or consulting is possible for an experienced chemist. A testing lab needs expensive equipment and trust, and a business selling chemical products carries safety and legal obligations well beyond what this page covers.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a chemist make in Ontario?

The median pay for a chemist in Ontario is $39.49 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $27.09 to $66.67 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a chemist in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. Several positions will become available due to retirements. There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a chemist in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: A chemistry degree; A graduate degree for research; A voluntary title, not a licence.

How many people work as a chemist in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 8,200 people working in this job in Ontario. 49% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Tech and engineering jobs: who is hiring What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.