I really enjoyed the article by Ramie Leibnitz entitled "The NIH Postdoc Experience."1 It was an entertaining and enlightening piece with a serious overtone: that women, despite similar age and number of years post-Ph.D., earn approximately $1,000 less per year than men as postdocs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although Dr. Leibnitz itemized what did NOT account for this (e.g., numbers of publications), she did not offer any explanations for this disturbing difference. If true, this represents our government "getting away" with gender discrimination. Are the salaries at NIH that negotiable? It seems that there should be a straightforward pay scale based on experience that should eliminate any gender bias.
- Hershel Raff, Ph.D.
- Professor of Medicine and Physiology
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- St. Luke's Medical Center
- 2801 W. KK River Parkway
- Milwaukee, WI 53215
- hraff@mcw.edu
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