The average salarym age, workload, and stress level increased this year, while the gender earnings gap remains stagnant.
Despite the difficult economy and burgeoning unemployment rate, the average spectroscopist's salary has increased from last
year. This year's 598 respondents had nearly two years more experience than last year's respondents, which might explain the
salary increase.
Before we delve into the salary breakdowns, here are a few statistics about this year's survey:
The average age of all respondents is 48.9 years. The average age of male respondents is 50.5 years, and 44.0 years for females.
Respondents have 21.8 years of professional experience, on average, and 8.7 years of experience in their current position.
89% of respondents are employed full-time; 3% are postdoctoral researchers/graduate students; 3% are employed part-time; and
2% are unemployed.
58% of respondents work in the private sector; 21% work in academia; and 16% work in government/national labs.
19% of respondents are senior scientists/researchers/research fellows; 17% are chemists/spectroscopists; and 14% are laboratory
directors/managers.
28% of respondents specialize in applied research/development; 15% in general testing and analysis; and 11% in quality control/assurance
or validation.
82% of respondents' employers cover the cost of conferences and web seminars.
59% of respondents' companies offer in-house training.
48% of respondents say their stress level at work has increased over the past year; 5% say it has decreased; 46% say it is
the same.
3% of respondents hold associate degrees, 35% hold bachelor's degrees, 21% hold master's degrees, and 38% hold doctoral degrees.
54% of respondents have their highest degree in chemistry and 9% in biology.
75% of respondents are male and 25% are female.
27% of respondents live in the Midwest; 25% in the Northeast; 23% in the Southeast; 21% in the Southwest; and 4% in the Northwest.
Salaries on the Rise
Table I: 2001–2009 average salaries
According to this year's survey, the mean salary for all respondents is $78,807, which is up from last year's mean of $77,634—
a small increase of $1,173. However, this is the second highest salary since 2007 (see Table I).
One significant demographic difference that could help explain the rise in this year's survey was the increase in professional
years of experience (21.8 years) compared to last year (19.9 years). This is a slight change, but typically more professional
experience means a higher salary. An estimated 40.3% of respondents had between 21 and 35 years of experience; 15.1% had between
10 and 15 years of experience; 12% had between 16 and 20 years of experience; 9.5% had between 5 and 9 years of experience;
9.3 had less than 5 years of experience; 7.7% had between 36 and 40 years of experience; and 6.2% had 41 or more years of
experience.
