Why are researchers paid so lowly?

[ydogyy1]

Considering how much education, creativity, and skills required to be a researcher, I am confounded as to why they are paid so lowly when compared with the investment banker, IT expert or an engineer. Can anyone shed some light on this? Is science just not regarded as a priority in our society?

 

Thanks

[Jochi1543]

Depends on what field you're in. My grandfather is in space science and pulls in a good $200K a year. On top of that, he pretty much sets his own schedule. If he feels like taking a week off, he's generally free to do so whenever he pleases; if he wants to work 12-8 instead of 8-4, same thing. Some of the best profs in medicine at U of A get around $500K. If you are a good researcher and your work is in a high-priority field, research can be a VERY cushy job.

[mermaid]

There is definitely a bias, in terms of funding and acclaim, for clinical research vs. basic science research. Still, someone posted this

 

http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2009/univer09.html

 

last week I think, and I was surprised when I checked out some of my profs at how much they actually make. Keep in mind that this is disclosed and not actual salary, too.

[leap87]

Holy cow!!!! My potential Ph.D. supervisor is PAID A LOT. But then again, he IS the highest of the crop. My masters supervisor is also paid quite a bit (less than Ph.D. supervisor though, but still over 100,000$). HOLY CRAP (I'm checking this list as I'm typing this) - this guy from Waterloo... well, no wonder... lol

 

Wow... some of the profs I know are earning close to 200,000. lol. My hat is off to them.

[astrogirl]

Because academia is a well-disguised pyramid scheme:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1144

[apache]

Business, engineering and medicine (clinical biochem, physiology, biotech) researchers make quite a lot. Like Jochi said, demand and productivity = cash. Plus profs generally live pretty cool lives, set your own hours, get to travel to conferences, I worked for a top notch prof and she was gone every month on some conference or presentation.

 

Because academia is a well-disguised pyramid scheme:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1144

[apache]

reminds me of my research days, all the grad students read these, theyre pretty funny!

 

Because academia is a well-disguised pyramid scheme:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1144

[deeman101]

Dunno 'bout that, there are profs that get paid $$$. I think the highest I've heard of at UT is somewhere in the $300k range. And academia in general is pretty chill once you're a professor/associate professor. Go to meetings, teach a course every now and then, go to more meetings, chill, etc.

 

Whats funny is my prof and I were actually looking at that list a couple weeks back. He looks up a prof on that list that works at UT and laughs at how much he makes. This guy is a PhD, an MD, has like 4 pubs a year, gets tons of funding, and makes $135k. Exactly the same as a botanist in the same department. LOL!

 

Oh yea the highest paid profs are business ones. Cushy job + not much years to make $$$ =

[shannn]

I am a clinical researcher

 

I get paid peanuts

 

I am essentially the bottom of the clinical food chain. No benefits, no job security, lots of work that results in authorship of only some of what I do, etc...

 

Sigh...

 

But, it is great experience.

 

Researchers do get paid well in the gov't though.

[runningdoc]

It depends on what sector you work in. It also depends on your research interests. It also depends on how successful you are.

 

I am in no way trying to insult anyone with a PhD, but there are many people who have one who probably shouldn't (in the same way that there are many people in every field who aren't really qualified to be in their position).

 

It's also a byproduct of what kind of work you are producing. If I researched the mating rituals of a rare species that noone has ever heard of, that won't lead to any sort of advancement in our own species, it probably isn't going to be a well-funded area of research. But if you are on the front line making advances in medical sciences, or in another form of R&D, there are certainly people who make a boatload of money.

 

As for going to conferences and setting your own hours, yeah, those are nice perks, but they aren't exactly real ones. Most researchers have incredibly poor working hours (I'm speaking strictly in the bench-work kind of research at this point). Between running your own experiments, supervising Masters, PhD, and Post-Docs, dealing with budgetary requirements, faculty meetings, lectures, office hours, you aren't exactly choosing to not come to work more often than not. And going to conferences all over the world is great, except you are paying for it out of pocket/out of your grant money. So it isn't like you get free trips whenever you want them.

 

If you in the private industry you might get paid to attend them however.

 

And if you are on the lower end of the research spectrum (as in a researcher without being a PhD, working for someone else) you don't tend to make a massive amount of money. That's where I am right now. I don't get any benefits, I don't get a huge amount of money (although I'm really not complaining as I get paid well enough to not struggle to survive - hard to put together a pile of savings for any potential Med school stuff though). But I really like what I do.

 

And I'll second the government thing. I worked for the government one summer during University and made more over that summer than I did in the 365 days following my Convocation from University.