Careers Guide 2013: The state of pay
MONEY, money, money. It\'s endlessly fascinating for some, but for scientists it tends not to be what really drives you. If it did, chances are you would have put those analytical skills to good use long ago in the City rather than the lab.
But whether youre well compensated or hard done by, salary is still a thorny issue. Few people feel comfortable discussing what they take home with colleagues or friends, and it doesnt help when job adverts insist on describing the salaries on offer as "competitive". Even so, it really does pay to know what youre worth, says Sue Ferns of the union Prospect, which represents engineers, scientists, managers and other specialists. Arming yourself with facts and figures can help you bargain better and improve your current salary. Or help you know when its time to move on.
In September, New Scientist quizzed you, our readers and users of our jobs website, about your financial lives. What kind of pay packet did you take home last year, what benefits did you enjoy, how big your last pay rise was - or wasnt. An extraordinary 5042 of you replied, many more than in our previous two salary surveys of 2007 and 2008. This time we also included readers in the US and the rest of Europe, although as most of our readers are based in the UK and US, we have focused primarily on these two regions.
Read on and find out where you fit in.
What are you worth?
Across all UK sectors employing scientists, a full-time professional takes home an average annual salary of £35,900, with those specialising in computer science or engineering earning the most. Thirty per cent of you earn over £40,000, while 3 per cent take home more than £80,000. The average wage has increased by 6 per cent since our last salary survey in 2008.
That doesn\\\\\\\'t sound too shabby until you realise that, in the UK at least, the cost of living has increased by 12 per cent during this time. "Scientists have taken a pay cut in real terms," says Ferns, but given that this period saw the worst recession in living memory, she adds that the trend is hardly surprising and has also been reflected across other areas of the UK workforce.
Average salaries are higher in the US. Scientists can expect to pull in an average of $73,900 (£46,000) before any bonuses and there are more people earning those higher wages, with 10 per cent notching up over $128,000 (£80,000).
Salaries tend to be higher in the US because workers there pay for healthcare out of their salary while in the UK it is paid via taxes. In addition, holidays are restricted to two weeks a year in the US, as opposed to the mandatory minimum of 28 days that UK employers offer.
So how does the average wage break down? Contrary to popular belief, the £37,600 average UK salary for scientists working at a university or in education is slightly more than their counterparts in industry. Even with the generous bonuses that industry uses to reward its employees, the average take-home wage for a scientist in industry is only £800 more than that of the average academic.
Given that both sectors contained respondents with a similar level of experience, perhaps it\\\\\\\'s time to ditch the cliché that you have to work in industry if you want to be well paid. More people need to know about this urban myth so they can make the right decisions about their career paths, says Jenny Rohn, a cell biologist at University College London and chair of Science is Vital, which campaigns for greater funding for science. Beck Smith, the assistant director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CASE) based in London, says that this should hopefully mean that more scientists will move between sectors, helping the UK to commercialise its top research. "We must move away from the idea that careers in academia and careers in industry can\\\\\\\'t overlap," she says.
In the US, however, it is drastically different, with the average salary in industry plus bonus standing at a huge $35,300 above the $63,600 scientists working in academia receive. Those working in government, contract research or medical sectors earn $26,760, $20,121 and $6,280 more respectively.
This disparity is well known. The usual story is that in exchange for lower pay, academics have the freedom to choose their topics, says Richard Freeman, director of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He points out that most academics are paid on a nine-month contract by their institution but many will get this topped up with money from research grants, which our survey doesn\\\\\\\'t account for. Despite this, John Curtis of the American Association of University Professors in Washington DC says that the difference in pay between the sectors is a concern in terms of attracting and retaining the most productive scientists for faculty positions
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