I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Disease Zone. It has scientists studying the causes and processes of illness . Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I’ll be really honest, one of the first things my boss told me when I started in our lab is “You don’t become a scientist if you want to be rich”. As a PhD student, I make just enough to cover my rent, bills, and food. If I’m lucky I have a bit left over, which gets put into my savings account so I can go to the movies, see my favourite band, or repair my roller skates.
It won’t always be like that though. Once I finish my PhD, the pay will get better (or so everyone promises me!), and in the mean time, I am learning that you don’t need a lot of stuff to be happy!
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Honestly, I don’t do science for the pay! I’m lucky, I work in a lab where I earn a bit more that people who work in research because I work some weekends and do have to get called in at night which means I get overtime pay, so some weeks are better than others!
As long as I have enough to pay the mortgage, pay the bills and feed me, my husband and our dog with some left over for fun I’m happy 🙂
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I do not know how much a scientist earn in average but I can give you an exact amount of salary that I made if my memory is correct. I had my first paycheck on 1972, in USA, as a research technician. My gross salary was about 1,000 $ but one fourth was deducted as tax. It was barely enough to support our family, my husband was a graduate student, no child at that time. After I finish my Ph.D. in 1982, I got a job as an assistant professor in Korea. Korean government payed for moving expenses of our family. My net salary was about 2,000$, the university provided us an apartment of 2 bed room, enough for 4 of us to live in Korea. The living expenses in Korea was not so high like in USA. The salary of scientist is not the rank of highest but they are respected in Korea.
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If you’re looking for numbers, you can probably find them if you Google around a bit. For instance, the university that I’m working at right now, the University of New South Wales, publishes salary rates on the web. You can find them here: https://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/salaries/acadsal.html. However, you also have to keep in mind that when you become a scientist it is *quite* common to move around, and that pay will vary between universities and countries. I’m from Canada, and the pay that I’m making here is more than I would have made in Canada, though my expenses here are higher as well.
I’ll echo what Vanessa and Kim said, though: if your goal is to become rich, ‘scientist’ isn’t the job for you. Scientists usually make enough money to live comfortably, but people who do science do it for the love of the job, not because they’ll be rich or famous. People will tell you to find what you love to do, and then find a way to get paid for it; that’s what we’ve done. It can be hard sometimes, though. We tend to watch our friends who finished a 3 or 4 year university degree go on to well-paying jobs, buying homes and cars before we can, starting families earlier than we might. We make some sacrifices for what we do, but if you ask those of us who’ve gone through, most of us wouldn’t have it any other way! 🙂
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Smart question and fair to ask.
The government has set minimum wages for non-for profit researchers.
As a PhD student now, you can expect between $23,000 and $28,000 a year, which is enough to pay your rent, groceries and live a little. And no, you can’t buy a Gucci handbag or Ducati motorbike, but not many at that age can.
As a postdoctoral researcher, I think for a first year postdo the minimum wage the government sets is around $63,000 a year and that goes up every year. I reckon many older postdocs easily earn something in the $80,000 a year or more. Not too bad actually!
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