How much money do you make?
Maxine Clarke
Thursday, 16 October 2008 11:36 UTC
‘How much money do you make? In local currency, after tax?’ So asks postdoc Bill Hooker in the Life Scientists’ room at FriendFeed. There are lots of contributions in response to the question, allowing people to make comparisions for the country in which they work. Take a look.
In another FriendFeed discussion, Sutee Dee asks how many graduate schools people applied to before taking their current position. Again, members of this forum might find the answers of comparative interest.
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Replies
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Though I fully understand the reasons for keeping salaries a closely guarded secret in the office, not knowing how much people in comparable positions make is a real hindrance, especially when contemplating employment in another country. It’s impossible to negotiate a fair offer without knowing what the industry standard/average compensation for a position is. It would be great if people outside of academia would open up about stuff like this, though that’s really not likely to happen… as evidenced by the lack of responses to this post.
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Yes, I agree that this information isn’t something that people generally feel comfortable about sharing, and I can perfectly understand that, as I wouldn’t want to myself. I am actually quite surprised by how many people have replied with figures at the Friend Feed link in the first paragraph above – about 15 or so I think.
There are various salary scales and registers, but nothing universal. Occasionally Nature, Science and other journals have published scientists’ salary surveys, and I wish they’d do more as it can only be helpful for people, not least those considering scientific careers. (Salary surveys are also published by various newspapers and other media, but are not limited to scientists – eg they might be across all of academia – so hard for a scientist to get a great deal out of these.)
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