Postdoc Pay

Concerning the news article "Postdocs get a pay raise, but other issues remain,"1 it is important to note that the pay raise being received by NIH-funded postdocs applies only to those paid from NIH grants awarded after October 1998. Any postdoc who is being paid from an NIH grant dated prior to October 1998 does not receive the increase. While this may be attributed to financial constraints, it means in real-life terms that a postdoc with up to three years of experience is currently making less money than a new postdoc with no experience. Not that any postdoc would begrudge the raising of salaries; it's so obviously long overdue. Of course, this is a temporary circumstance, and the disparity will disappear in a few years' time. Some principal investigators may even find creative ways to enhance the lot of their current postdocs. But for those postdocs that experience the disparity, ...