Chemists Report Higher Salaries In 1989 ACS Membership Study

The approximately 11,000 chemists gathering in Boston for the American Chemical Society meeting next week will undoubtedly be glad to hear that in today's job market, it appears they have the right chemistry for obtaining employment. In many cases, chemists are commanding increasing salaries and finding new opportunities, thanks to a favorable imbalance in the age-old relationship between demand and supply. For instance, veteran chemists with Ph.D.'s can expect to see annual pay increase higher than inflation, which hovered around 5 percent last year. And one major firm reports that it now hires 33 percent more newly graduated chemists than it did just three years ago. These are some of the results of salary data for 1989 compiled by the American Chemical Society and published in February in a report entitled "Salaries of Scientists, Engineers and Technicians: A Summary of Salary Surveys." The report, now in its 14th edition, is issued by the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, which has been gathering job information every two years. "Salaries are a major indicator of demand, and everybody's anxious to know what they are," says Betty Vetter, the commission's executive director, who adds that her group will be collecting data and publishing its report annually starting next year. As heartening as these data may seem, however, there's sobering news for women chemists who work in industry. With hardly any exceptions, a female chemist earns less than her male counterpart, even if she has the same degree and has just as much experience as he does. MEDIAN AND MEAN STARTING SALARIES OF GRADUATE CHEMISTS,* 1989 M.S.Ph.D. Degree Specialty Median Mean Median Mean Analytical $30,000 $29,431 $41,000 $38,669 Inorganic 29,000 27,546 42,450 40,136 Organic 31,750 30,626 42,750 40,466 Physical 34,300 31,300 38,000 35,491 Biochemistry 30,000 31,389 30,750 31,083 Polymer 30,570 29,035 Total 30,300 29,863 42,000 38,782 *Includes only members of the American Chemical Society. NOTE: Blanks indicate too few respondents. Source: American Chemical Society Women with a B.S. and one year's experience reported earning 1.3 percent less in median salary for 1989 than men with similar qualifications ($25,650 versus $26,000). And among those with a B.S. and 10 to 14 years on the job, women earned 5.1 percent less than men ($37,982 versus $40,000). The discrepancy is more marked among academic chemists. The median 1989 salary for male chemistry professors with nine- or 10-month contracts was $48,000. Female chemistry professors, by contrast, made $43,000 - 10.4 percent less than the men. Male associate professors of chemistry earned $36,000, whereas female associate professors earned $33,500. At the assistant professor level, men earned $31,000 while women earned $27,000. ACS, which conducts its poll each year, mailed more than 9,300 surveys to its newly graduated members in 1989. The society also forwarded questionnaires to more than 26,800 more experienced members. In both cases, responses came from slightly less than 50 percent of those queried. Seasoned and aspiring chemists will generally find the results encouraging. For instance, the 1989 median annual salary for those holding master's degrees in one of six specialties - analytical, inorganic, organic, physical, and polymer chemistry, as well as biochemistry - was $30,300, up 9.4 percent from the $27,700 median reported in the 1988 ACS survey. The mean salary increased 10.5 percent, to $29,863. "I found that the lack of trained people at the undergraduate and graduate level made it easy to find work," says Edward Mikalsen, 26, a recent graduate of the State University of New York, Albany, with an M.S. degree in physical chemistry. Mikalsen recently started work at American Cyanamid in Trenton, N.J., in a position that was actually one of three offered to him as a result of contacts he made at an ACS job fair last year (The Scientist, Dec. 11, 1989, page 20). His salary is right in line with the median $34,300 paid to newcomers in his specialty (see table). By contrast, the 1989 median pay for an M.S. in inorganic chemistry was $29,000, the lowest of the six categories surveyed. Inorganic chemists also received the lowest mean salary paid: $27,546, versus $31,389 for a chemist with an M.S. in biochemistry. For new graduates with a Ph.D., the median salary for five categories - polymer data were not available - was $42,000, up 3 percent from 1988. The highest paid were Ph.D.'s specializing in organic chemistry, with salaries of $42,750. That's a big leap from the $30,750 median for a biochemist with a Ph.D. The mean salary for a new Ph.D. in 1989 was $38,782, a 4.9 percent increase over the 1988 figure. Organic chemists earned the highest mean salary for Ph.D.'s, and biochemists earned the lowest. Despite the smaller increases in the salaries paid to new Ph.D. graduates versus new master's graduates, these chemists shouldn't have a hard time finding work, according to Carl Bauer, director of personnel resources at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich. Bauer says that Dow is hiring about 100 new chemists a year, up from 75 in 1987. "It's an optimistic outlook for chemists," he says. "In the early 1980s, the chemical industry was in overcapacity, which greatly reduced hiring. Now, the cycle has come around. If the shortage stays the way it is, I think competition [for all chemists] will get tougher, and salaries will go up." The trend is having a positive effect on salaries among veteran chemists, says Joan Burrelli, a senior research analyst at ACS who compiles the salary survey. She notes that in industries in which salaries lag inflation, chemists may be receiving bonuses. ACS found that the median salaries of chemists employed in industry full-time and holding a B.S. degree was $41,000 for men, but just $31,000 for women. Men with M.S. degrees reported a median salary of $48,000, versus $39,300 for women. The disparity continued among chemists with Ph.D.'s. Men reported a median salary of $59,600, versus $48,000 for women. Edward R. Silverman is a staff reporter at New York Newsday.

Chemists Report Higher Salaries In 1989 ACS Membership Study

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