Last year, The Scientist reported on annual and semiannual salary surveys of scientists in academia, government, and industry,1 based on published sources from professional societies, private firms, the federal government, and academic groups. This article is an update on the tried-and-true annual surveys and results from some new ones.
"The greatest demand is still for people trained in fields such as information technology and engineering," says Eleanor Babco, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology. "So they will, of course, continue to garner the highest salaries." (A survey by ComputerJobs.com found that IT workers with two to four years of experience had salaries of about $50,000.) Nevertheless, salaries in the life sciences are holding their own, one step above this year's rate of inflation.
Within academia, there are four major surveys conducted by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges ...
