For the first time in The Scientist’s Salary Survey 10-year history, there has been a dip in salaries over the last year as universities cut bonuses, enforce furloughs, drag out hiring freezes, and even ask faculty members to take one for the team by accepting salary cuts. And with the rising costs of living and operating a lab, it’s not welcome news for anyone.
In 2006, husband-and-wife scientific duo Gia Voeltz and Brian DeDecker moved to Boulder, Colorado, from Boston, Massachusetts, to take up faculty positions as molecular biologists at the University of Colorado. Transitioning from postdoc salaries to two faculty incomes, “I thought we’d have a lot more expendable income,” laughs Voeltz, a biologist at UC. Instead, daycare for two little ones, running upwards of $2,500 per month, and a mortgage for a home in downtown Boulder sucks up most of their collective income, leaving little to stash away for future expenses like college tuition for their kids. “There are plenty of people in the country feeling a lot more pain than us,” DeDecker says, “but we’re not putting away a nest egg, so that’s kind of unsettling.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: Life Sciences Salary Survey 2010 - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences
Author: Megan Scudellari
