The facts of a phD life, part 1 (salary and employment)

So why do we do a phD? Here's one reason:

But there are a lot of reasons. What I'm learning is that pay scale is not one of them.


While I'm not saying the comic is false, it represents all phD programs and let's face it, Bio ones do pay better.

Actual numbers from the National Science Foundation
Male vs female stats also annoy me.

Median salary for scientists...Citation (see tables H13-H15)

in HEALTH with
a bachelors
- female: 45,000
- male: 48,000
a masters
- female: 55,000
- male: 68,000
a doctorate
- female: 58,000
- male: 60,000

in BIOLOGY with
a bachelors
- female: 30,000
- male: 35,000
a masters
- female: 45,000
- male: 47,000
a doctorate
- female: 40,000
- male: 41,000

So a man with a masters in health sciences averages $8k more than a woman with a doctorate and it pays less to about the same to get a doctorate vs a masters. Oof.

All this data is from their Science and Engineering demographic information.
Women as a percentage of S&E doctoral degrees, full-time full professors, and full-time tenure-track faculty: 2006