If you can’t afford the Radford Survey, Biospace released a US Life Science Salary Report this summer. Here are the highlights.
Life Science professionals reported an overall average of 4.4% salary increase. The average salary is ~$113,000 similar to salary averages for fields like chemical engineering ($114,470) and developers of system software ($114,000) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The gender gap continues to be a problem. In “Pharma country” (NY, CT, RI, NY, NJ, PA), men’s salaries were reported to be 41.5% higher than women. The largest gender salary gap by discipline is in the clinical arena where men earn 42.5%, roughly $43,000, more than women. The good news is there are ways to impact this including salary transparency. The Harvard Business Review highlighted a study illustrating from 2003 to 2008, the gender pay gap at mandatory reporting firms shrank 7% while the gap at control firms stayed at 18.9%.
The Biospace report goes on to provide high level average salary comparisons across segments including Medical Device, Biotech, Pharma, Healthcare and academia. It also offers summary information on average salaries by therapeutic area and role/position. This ranges from CEOs to research assistants.
A piece of good news is the indicators for the Life Science market look healthy. Deloitte reported the global personalized medicine market is expected to increase over 11 percent CAGR for the period 2017–2024. New approaches such as CAR-T therapy and regulatory disruptive products like the ECG app on the Apple watch that can provide heart rate and heart rhythm means new revenue streams and NewCo creation going forward. In the past, strong market growth correlated to solid job opportunities and good compensation for job seekers.