- https://www.salary.com/tools/salary-calculator/medical-research-scientist?type=bonus&view=table shows median $96k (same figure with or without bonus, so something incorrect)
- https://collegegrad.com/careers/medical-scientists shows median $89k (not sure with or without bonus)
- https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Medical_Scientist/Salary shows average $82k base salary. Note PayScale.com always shows lower figures than other sites.
Why the difference? Source data are definitely different, and bonus may/not be counted, but notice median vs average. Average is typically Higher than median for wealth data, because the high outliers have a huge impact on the average. However, in this case the average is lower !
What’s your field observation of their salary? I guess below 100k is indeed much lower than software engineers. I always thought medical research requires high education and very much white-collar. Now I think the education and training requirement is much shorter compared to physicians who manage patients rather than data about humans. Therefore, the supply of qualified researchers is much higher than I assumed.
I think general practitioners make 150k typically.
I always believe that we software engineers are fairly well paid in the U.S. context. Your pointer just confirmed my belief.
— Shanyou’s reply on Wed, 20 Jan 2021:
Many Chinese in the Philadelphia area work as medical researchers. The job sounds good but I know they are not being paid well. Some people say that the actors, basketball players shouldn’t get ten of millions each year, but their is nothing wrong with that, it is determined by the market. I agree with you that software developer is a good profession.
— My reply after Chinese New year:
You are right about NBA players. The count of highly paid NBA players is very small, perhaps below 500 worldwide. If you count the 500 best-paid medical researchers, the typical package is probably very lucrative too.
The key difference between NBA vs medical research — career-total income is limited by the short career length of NBA stars — 青春饭.
Accounting auditors is another profession that is good only in the “sound”. I know they get paid much less than us software guys. In Citigroup, for a few months I had a cubicle right beside a bunch of young auditors from a big-four accounting firm (KPMG if I am not wrong). Over a few months I had many chitchats with a few auditors in their early 30s, about my age at the time. I remember they were paid much less than me at that time, perhaps below 100k. Many of them want to switch industry to join finance. In a way, they were like the poor security inspectors for the rich bankers.
In each case, supply-n-demand is the explanation of the salary discrepancy. The software engineers as a profession generate enormous (and growing) profit for employers, creating an increasing demand for our skills. Here’s a case in point —
Millennium founder and CEO is one of the global top 10 hedge fund owners, a legend in the industry. He is ruthless on his traders, cutting non-performing trading teams every year. He sees “technology” not as a cost center. He sees technology as an enabler, a strategic competitive advantage, a long-term asset he can build over decades to differentiate himself from competitors. With superior trading technology, he can attract superior trading talent. During the 2020 pandemic, he hired more technology professionals and paid existing tech staff a decent bonus although I won’t venture to estimate the typical amount (higher than investment banks). You can say I’m grateful to him, and grateful to my manager.
Therefore software engineers (are perceived to) create far more profit than medical researchers. As a result, the supply-n-demand (“market”) drives up the salary difference.
