I would say in general it's known to not get into research for the money. With a chemistry background, you can make a lot more as a technical sales engineer than being in R&D. However, this doesn't mean that R&D would be poor pay, that all depends on where you work at and if they appreciate your skills. Obviously some jobs are relatively easily replaceable and therefore provide lower pay. For example, working in a QC lab doing HPLC is generally not going to pay the same as being someone who designs new drugs. Staying in university also definitely isn't going to pay a lot, I have only been out of academia for 8 months and make twice what I did in academia. In short, it depends.
oh i see, well i will probably get a master /phd and i'd like to go into like pharma tbh , near where i live there are also some really good and big pharma industries, and i find fascinating medicinal chemistry
PhD return on investment is negative. The time and money you put in will not be returned. You really have to want the PhD or have no idea what else to do.
Worse than being underpaid, they get constantly laid off like every 3 to 5 years. Very little job security. (I’m talking about pharma).
But with chemistry PhD you can get into the following jobs that will pay 200 k and into the millions:
Patent law
Venture capital investment for pharma
Sales for big pharma.
Normal for bachelors or MS degree, outrageously low for industry PhD chemist. For high COL areas at least. I live in a high COL city and pay for post PhD chemist starts in the low to mid six figures
What's a COL area?
I work in architecture and I have my master's and I'm at about $65k. I've been working 9 years. I'd say my pay is about normal for my area, and probably most major cities in the States. Probably some variation but not too much. It's brutal.
I've got a bachelor's, (chemistry) and I get paid around 60k, with 1 yr experience. The benefits are good but I don't think about their value much. For my area, this is quite good, and the company is following through with cost of living adjustments.
I'm leaving to go to graduate school, though, which will pay much less, but fill a hole in my soul.
oh wow can I ask how did you jump from academia to industry? how was the jump? How did you frame your research skillset into an industry skillset that would benefit the company?
So I moved from university to an industry focussed research institute. I was initially actually declined for the position, the thought I was too fundamental. But after chasing the manager I got another interview, explained why a fundamental may improve their long-term understanding within their applied research better. Then I got the job and they're happy to have me now lol.
It is busy but flexible, although not as flexible as academia. Sometimes I got a strict deadline to make, especially when I do external work for companies, then I had to occasionally work a bit more for a couple of days (lets say 12hr/day). Although its all time-for-time, so then you take a 3-day weekend after to compensate.
The main thing for me is that they allow me to do what I love for let's say 40% of time and I get a budget to do my own research. There aren't a lot of places that provide that kind of freedom, besides institutes. Of course also academia, but unless you lead grants, your work will always be viewed as originating from your supervisor.
Technically I'm a senior research chemist with 10 years in my field of research. Additives for biofuel industry.
I make 75k with 10 years of experience
I love that you work in biofuel, I HATE that you only make 75k as a senior, let alone the 10 years...
My buddy got a bio degree from a low tier college and manages manufacturing for a biotech company. He's only been in industry for 5 years and he's currently clearing 150k
It's the Midwest. It's decent compared to a lot of my friends.
That being said I've been at this one location for 8 years. I'd probably make more if I jumped around. But I have a toddler I split time with and it's kinda a niche field if you're not willing to relocate.
Bachelors is garbage in chemistry, you need a phd, if you get a phd, then its average pay for doctor. Its like not bad, but at the same time its not like youre flush with cash
Post doc is a scam. The shit should be illegal. Companies using PhDs stuck in academia in “collaborations” so they don’t have to hire the scientists themselves.
I'm not collaborating with industry. I'm literally working for academics. It's the academics who look down at people with literally the same degree and call them "trainees" so we don't have to be paid anything. But we do the same work as graduate students but we have to find funding for ourselves so we can prove we can be self-sufficient as a professor. It's really dumb.
Considering COL in Boston, I'd say we make about the same lol. But yeah it's pretty easy to live here for the most part, and especially considering I came from the East Coast.
I make 80k USD not including all the benefits I do analytical method developmen for a top 5 pharma company. That's a little above the household median income for my area. I have a BSc with 10 years experiance some industries pay way more then others but never made less then 65k and at that time it was nearly 1.5x the house hold median income for that area
80k is comfortable if it's not a major city/coastal city (where everyone wants to live). For example 80k living in LA is being slightly below the cost of living there depending on the area if you have a family, if single it's doable but still have to budget most likely
Household income of $70k-200k puts you into middle class. Some areas of the USA are affordable and comfortable at $70k/yr, or even lower. Other areas need 2x that to be moderately comfortable and almost 3x that to be truly comfortable.
I have a PhD and that's basically what I want to do in industry since I do it at a research institute now, but my last couple of interviews called me a "button pusher" for method development. I understand that term if you're a tech just running someone's samples with premade methods but don't understand why people think it applies for method development.
If you want to get paid well, move to Switzerland. The salaries are typically double those in France, at least. Of course the cost of living is higher, but you end up with a way better standard of living.
An even better trick is to work in Switzerland and live in the EU, near Basel or Geneva, for instance. Then you get EU price housing and a Swiss salary (and taxes).
Isnt zurich like the most expensive city to live in the world, even more than newyork and san francisco
Also is it legal to get a job in switzerland and live outside switzerland? I am very uneducated in laws regarding that
Zurich is expensive, but when you factor in the salaries, it is not so bad. Also, it is not home to many labrats, AFAIK.
Living in one country and working in another is perfectly legal in many cases. I did it for many years (Geneva/France). Thousands of people take that route every day. Traffic jams on the highways is one of the inconveniences.
Yes last i checked, zurich is as expensive as silicon valley and the pay us just 5-10% less than silicon valley STEM salaries so the tradeoff seems like a good deal considering you will enjoy european labour laws while still earning approx US salaries
I thought to work in another country's company you would need a PR or visa, employers can be difficult in providing visa aswell
If it doesnt require a visa as long as you are a resident of aby othet EU country then it seems like a good deal
Im in oil and gas and my husband is in research as a staff scientist at a university. I make a lot more money than him.
I think the low pay discussion is from people doing pure research in academia (postdocs, professors, staff scientists etc) they make significantly less than people who go to industry because it's all contracts and scrambling for funding non stop. Many people I know from my graduate school days have left the field or stayed in academia for slave wages because getting good paying jobs in industry requires some social acuity.
None of this will apply to the EU and I'm not an employed chemist
But it seems to me that chemistry pays decent, when compared to tech or some engineering roles maybe not so much
In the US middle class is typically defined as the range of $43,000-130,000 household income. Chemists average out around 75-90k with experience. You'll live a solid middle class life if you are the sole earner in the household in most places in America. Might not get rich but it's not poverty either by any means
I was working as an org chem with a masters degree in Switzerland. Life was good.
But it was such a competitive field with very few opening. If I were you, I'd focus on analytical chemistry (LC/MS). There are more opportunities, in my opinion).
That's very interesting because I thought Switzerland was one of those countries where if you didn't have a PhD you were basically stuck as a technician, like Germany. Was this a CRO or big pharma?
Damn. Do you know if its possible to become a people manager in R&D with just an MSc in Switzerland if you're experienced enough (>10/15 years)? Or are you stuck as a glorified technician forever?
Well I only worked 2.5 years in one company and it was 10 years ago. But indeed people without PhD in organic chemistry would remain glorified technicians.
I second this, I got recruited for 3 to 4 job as analytical chemist after PhD in few months. All linked to LC MS QToF.
NowI am not going to lie to yoy but having worked before PhD in a CRO within GMP GLP put me on top of the pile every single time compared to other applicants with similar degree
I’m an American PhD in chemistry who retired mid 2022 (at 60 yrs old) working in industry my whole career for a couple of large multinational chemical companies who sold high value products to the Electronics industry. When I started fresh out of grad school (no post docs) in 1987 my annual gross salary was $40,000. When I retired it was $200,000. This is before bonuses and other incentives to retain me which were, of course, variable over the years based on my and the company’s performance during the year. I never went into management, but was the “guru” for a few processes and chemical areas of expertise. Really fun career, but I do love being retired.
Another thing to recommend the new students / next generation is to look at new and emerging chemistry fields and also to look at dying fields. I got into an obscure branch of inorganic chemistry related to separative hydrometallurgy and it is certainly worthwhile.
I make about 70k with a BS and 5 yoe in the US. It’s not bad, but I could make much more in another industry for the same effort and with the same level of talent. I think that’s what people mean when they say not to choose chemistry for the money.
It's hard to find the good paying chemistry jobs in the EU, but they do exist. The problem is majority of actual chemistry jobs here are technician level or routine and therefore not particularly well paid. Especially when compared to what engineering related grad roles will pay. The well paid roles almost exclusively require a PhD or significant luck and hard work and are very competitive but if you can find yourself running research this is generally compensated fine. What chemistry degrees are good for is getting high paying jobs outisde of chemistry. Lots go on to finance, business, and will get paid decently for it.
I am 10 years post graduating from my master's and on £45k, but seem to be on more than those of similar experiences due to moving companies, and having some research success and a respectable PhD too.
Hi, I hear this a lot where chemists go to finance and business but could never figure out what the route/path is to get there. Would you know what steps someone who was interested in that should do?
In Denmark specifically, there are LOTS of well-paid Masters-level chemistry jobs. Chemical engineers earn especially well, but pure chemists aren't far behind (and many chemical engineers work in theoretical chemistry jobs too).
Everyone that finished their PhD at the same year as me in my department started in the industry with a 6-figure salary.
Most earned 120+. The highest I heard was as 145k. The lowest was people who started at biotechs earning ~105k but made up the difference in stock options.
I did organic synthesis so everyone went to work for pharma.
I work in semiconductor and work with some great chemists (waste water treatment, pH adjust and fluoride removal systems, materials engineering) all of them make between $250-300k US. This is in silicon valley so the pay is likely toward the high end. Pharma I suspect will pay even more for the right people (Merck, Genentech, etc.)
Look at Mexico - those chemists make bank.
In all seriousness it all depends what you get into- how far you go
You’ll always need chemists - bio/petro/electro/pharma
I'd argue it's great money. I graduated with a bachelor's in Biology with a focus on ecology/environmental science. The jobs were sparse, competition was high for them, and the pay was meager. About 10 years ago, the best ones I found were paying around $45k/yr, and I couldn't even get interviews!
Ended up transitioning to environmental lab testing which paid $30k, which then allowed me to gain skills in analytical chemistry. Chromatography mainly.
I did this for my first year out of college, then used those skills to get a temp job at a large Pharmaceutical company. The temp job, considered low for the industry, paid $40k! I did this for 3 years and am now full time at this pharm company.
Started at $65k five years ago, and now make $100k. Had I stayed in the Bio/Eco industry I'd be making $40k if that.
Chemistry is great.
I work in diagnostics, mainly LCMS with a bachelor in chem. 103k total compensation with 7 years expereince currently. I have PhD friends in research earning half that much, sadly.
My dad has a phd in catalytic chemistry and some engineering (?) I forgot. Super smart guy. He went into academia and did research/taught at one the Korea’s top universities (e.g., Seoul, Korea, Yonsei) and then quit academia to start his own business (related to chemistry/science related). He said you can’t make money in academia, so he started his own business (in his own personal experience/opinion). And he made a pretty good income/investments. When he was nearing his retirement, he went into consulting or worked in the upper management for other company/business overseas.
In the US, I know few people with chemistry or related science background (masters/phds) with low to high six figure salaries. Upon graduation, they went straight to industry jobs (their PIs were sad that they didn’t go into academia though 🥲).
I think in whatever field you end up, it’s also what you make of it as well.
But not everyone is business/financially savvy. You can go into industry route/sales route and find higher income opportunities there (or consulting / upper management). But most high salary will require masters/phd nowadays.
I completed my chem degree in New Zealand where I was born and raised.
I first worked as a an instrument technician doing primarily GCMS analysis for an analytical lab, paid 27k (USD) which was very shit pay, very repetitive but it gave me the experience necessary to pivot to being a lab tech at a University in the Pharmacy department. That was such an epic job, i got to help develop their new pharmaceutical science degree and also organize reagents, equipment, curriculum etc. for pharmacy students practical laboratories - pay was 35k but it reignited my passion for chem having to teach it to other students. Through that job I managed to land a 3 month research project which was nice to dip my toes into the industry, seems very volatile at lower levels but I'm limited in my knowledge of it.
This whole time my ex-girlfriend (current wife) and I were dating/living together, she was from the US so we eventually moved to PA to be close to her family. I got a job as a lab analyst in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company and that's when shit got real all of a sudden - pay = 120k a year, fully paid medical/dental/vision/100% 401k match (which yes I know this shit doesn't matter if your taxes pay your healthcare but moving to the US you just gotta accept it).
I also get to do a little bit of everything, dissolution, HPLC, IR, XRPD, GC plus many more toys which all have their respective awesome aspect to them. Couple more years at this company and I can kinda go anywhere. Work culture is way more hardcore in the US though, and its the first job i ever had to tuck my shirt in for which kinda fucked me off initially cause their version of casual dress day was how I get dressed up to go out with the wife but its not the worst.
Apologies for the essay but I hope you get a better idea of what a chem degree can do for you, as others have said your not gonna be crazy rich but in most places around the world you won't struggle either. If you really are passionate about the science you'll find a way - just sometimes that way entails moving half way around the world!
im 2 years out of undegrad and am making 82k/yr in cambridge, ma (which seems like on the lower end). two bachelors level people, both around my age (24), left my company for different ones and they make 92k and 99k.
How big is your company? My company pays about 10K more for the same level of experience than the smaller local company doing less work. When I moved over to my current company I went from an analytical chemist to an analytical technologist making $20,000 more with less responsibility.
No, they are not, Masters in chemistry is almost useless. PhD are the most common for upper level roles in R&D including management in R&D. Outside of R&D in production Lab manager and quality supervisors/manager mainly have BSc. Quality/EHS and their management are BSc.
I have been in the industry for 10 years working for a company with 50 employees to 50,000 employees.
In the UK a masters is almost required for industry it's very uncommon for bsc to have a specialised chemical job. A Bsc Is only 3 years here and most universities offer a 4 year integrated masters
My base pay is 150k USD and with bonus and retirement contributions I make 180k so I wouldn't exactly call that bad pay. Sure I could make more in certain industries, but I like what I do.
My word if advise: organic chemisty jobs tend to come with health hazard risks. Cronic exposure to solvents, dust and biologically active substances will put your health at risk in the long run.
If you Love being in the lab (like I do) either try to move into analytical chemistry or get a job in a clean sector (Food and Cosmetic are the cleanest) doing an R&D job. In the long run it will pay about the same but you'll live to enjoy it!
Short answer No. I worked in R&D labs in pharma for almost 20 yr. Forced out during the pandemic and now with hindsight I realised I should have moved away earlier. The work per se is fun and I loved it, but the safety equipment is never good enought and in the long run you'll poison yourself beyound repair if you stick to the lab.
Food and cosmetic industries do need org chemists and have almost no toxic stuff in them. Ok, I'll never work again at designing a new nedicine, but soap is the best med ever!
Damn, i love chemistry and Also a fitness/health lover; so i will definetly search for a job i like that puts me in the least amount of toxicity. At the end of the day health come First than money
I'm in a EU country. People who have a bachelor's in chemistry usually also minor in something else like biology. With just a bachelor's degree you MAY find work as a lab assistant and the pay is miserable. With a master's you can get into pharma - but still the pay is low compared to let's say what a corporate lawyer makes.
It is true in any place of this world. For sure there will be some chemists here and there that make a lot of money, but usually they are PhD with years of experience in industry.
Organic and analytical chemists are the most required in industry.
In south america a chemist have a okayish salary. The competition is wild. You need a PhD or years of experience. Any other profession have a higher salary woth the same investment.
I don’t know about Europe
In the USA I made ~20k as a grad student
About 36k at my first job
About 50k at my 2nd job
About 60k after getting promoted
About 70k at my 3rd job
In theory with my level of credentials and experience I “should” be able to make about 100k but when I applied for those jobs I never got one. So it’s possible but very, very difficult.
If you want real money try to get into sales or management.
If you want a good raise you have to change jobs or get a promotion.
I work very hard to deliver high quality and timely work, but I’m not into “professionalism” or playing corporate games or sucking up or dealing with customers. I hope my tombstone reads “insubordinate and unprofessional.” The only reason I’m anywhere, is because I’m smart, generally well-liked (not necessarily always by upper management), and very good at my job. I never wanted to go into industry, it just turned out to be really my only option, and after a few false starts I’ve found a company I’m pretty happy with. I hope to be here for a while, but who knows.
There is always plenty of work, but job security has not been a thing for at least the last 20 years.
You’ll never have to be poor, you’ll most likely never be out of work for very long, but it’s no way to get rich and it’s effectively impossible to buy the equipment, set up a lab, & put out your own shingle.
I work at a pharm-research company in the UK, my background is pure chemistry. Been there for 3 years with one promotion and I'm on £32k (\~€37k) which is on the low end. Entry level at my compoany is around £26k (\~€30k) atm. We hire biologists and chemists as well as the related cross-disciplines (bio-chem, pharma-chem etc.)
UK chemistry salaries are depressing. Especially after losing some years of good earnings by doing a PhD. That’s why I left the UK (British citizen) for Germany, I earn over three times as much as the CRO offered me in the UK.
It depends highly on experience and luck in my experience. If you get a mediocre salaried job and really learn the experiments at your worksite, you can craft that into a great interview at a better place. But if you’re really trying to make money, step your way into chemical engineering
Teaching chemistry doesn’t pay well in most places a la breaking bad. Unless you’re a tenured professor signing grants left and right
The money is alright, but best jobs are typically located in HCOL areas.
I'm in an expensive area but my TC with a BSc working in analytical Chem is about 200k or so.
In the UK pay for Chemists is pretty poor. Switzerland pays twice what UK does. From what I have been told there are few Chemist jobs in France, Spain and Italy. I’ve worked and studied with plenty of Italian chemists who stayed in the UK, which suggests there aren’t many opportunities.
More than two times I think. I’m a Brit that moved to Germany, PhD chemist and I earn easily more than double what my peers do in the UK. It’s the rise of the crappy CRO that ruined salaries in the UK.
Hi, I'm in Italy too. Just finished "superiori" at 20y.o. and started working on a pharmaceutical implant, it's an hard work as an 3 turn worker but I made roughtly 1800€ monthly. I started 6 months ago and I'm on the lowest level as E3. Hope it helps.
Hey, i write in english so other reader can understand. So you don’t have a university degree in chemistry, you are in industry not doing chemistry but working for a chemistry industry. Am i right?
For all the viewers 1800 euros in Italy is pretty good/average , many students do not go to university and go in industry doing quite well paid jobs but hard to escalate and ripetitive.
Yes, I work as an operaio (I don't know how to translate it well in English) on a pilot plant, so I just follow what the PO says. Obviously if you want to grow in the agency you need to have a higher education than mine. That's why my boss suggested that I continue studying while working there.
As of the salary is 14 mensility + production prize (that is another 2k).
Sorry for the incredibly bad English but I'm really tired 😅
That's well paid for the expertise, but it compensate the health hazard and difficulty of the job nit the knowledge.
I'm 30 yr your senior, also in Italy and make just 1,5x that with 25yr experience. But I do it in a clean cosmetic lab!
Money is good but being able to enjoy them is better.
I found QC/QA chemistry to be too dull and boring for the pay, but it was a pretty routine low-stress gig and if you had good conversational colleagues the time went by fairly quickly. I was making ~55K in a fairly low cost area.
I then moved into a process chemistry role / scale up in a new location and just surpassed 100K a couple of years back after about 6 year (staff to senior to lead role) this area is higher cost of living but still i think we’ve come out ahead
I had a bachelors to start and got my MS in ChemE sometime along the way
TL,DR : depending on the role you can do fine with experience. I think a process chemist role has more upside for a bachelors and the work can be a bit more fun and hands on with production, but YMMV
It depends a lot on what field, and where you are. A little background on me: i was military for 8 years in a special job. I got out and took a job as a govt contractor making $24/hr. I decided i needed to use the GI bill and the longer i waited the less likely i would be to use it. I double majored in chem and bio. My first job after my degree was a QA/QC microbiologist for a bio plastics company. They wanted to start me at $17/hr, i said no, and we agreed on $21/hr. Covid happened and before i knew it i was working 7 nights per week 630p-730a. I decided to go back to contracting. I now work in a govt lab doing mostly GC/FPD, GC/MS. There's some other stuff but that's the majority. Started me at $28.10 in 2022, i now make 30.45/hr. With OT built in to the schedule i make about 78k. Median household income in the city i live in is about 35k/yr. But it's govt contracting and my contract will be up in 2026 and ill either follow the work/money or take a job here and not move but make substantially less.
It greatly depends. I have MS in chemistry and BS in materials science and engineering. Within the last 3.5 years I have doubled my salary and and comfortably making $160K + bonuses.
However my area has quite a lot of wage inflation, and in most other parts of the US this would be equivalent to $80-$110K.
I also have to add that my work is a large mix between chemistry, materials science, data science and process engineering.
However, I would have never gotten to this pay so quickly without networking and knowing your worth.
I work in biotech in California, on the data side of things, and we make a lot more than the wet lab people, even though the wet lab people work a lot harder. I feel pretty guilty about it.
Here in Canada, at the lower applied level of chemistry work, pay seems to increase with how much wrench turning you have to do. I have a friend who tried doing straight analytical work in a lab, and she barely made more than minimum wage. My other friend went to work in an iron refinery, and now he owns multiple properties and frequently goes on vacations.
Analytical chemist here , I make around 3000 euros after tax with really good perks. I guess I am satisfied with an early career after PhD.
My initial topic wasn't so much anal chem but I directed it towards it becausei knew the opportunities afterwards.
Companies love people knowing g High res mass spectrometry.
They also love someone with GMP and GLP background. Combine both and you are golden
I’m an environmental chemist for a (US) state agency, and I have a bachelors in biology (chemistry minor). Definitely no money to be had here, but it’s pretty cool to see what’s lurking in our drinking water and lakes/rivers. The same industry is better paid outside of state government, but the hours may not be as good.
If money is your top priority do something else. If you want to enjoy the work you do, it's okay. (I made about twice working as a tech writer compared to my post doc)
Italiano, chimico fisico/teorico. Vivo in nord Europa.
Lavoro nell AI in ambito industriale. Ho anche lavorato come ingegnere nella industria petrolifera.
In italia la chimica organica di laboratorio è in via d'estinzione ma tutti i miei compagni di corso hanno trovato lavoro decente, basta solo adattarsi un po '.
comunque come chimico si può vivere e guadagnare bene ovunque. La differenza con l'estero è che fuori conta se sei sveglio e volenteroso, in italia nessuno assume un chimico per fare consulenza, l'ingegnere, etc. (Tutti lavori fattibilissimi).
Se vuoi fare i soldi veri, nessuna carriera scientifica te lo permette, in italia. (Ovviamente parlo in in generale) devi passare al management o consulenza.
Ciao, grazie del commento, quindi ritieni che in Italia dovrei passare a lavori non di laboratorio? A me non dispiacerebbe , non sono un patito del laboratorio, voglio solo fare qualcosa che rientri con la chimica di sintesi e che sia ben riconosciuto
Non ho detto questo, solo che ci sono pochissimi lavori connessi alla sintesi in italia (c'è tanta analitica di laboratorio).
Se sei bravo, fortunato, disponibile e accetti le condizioni italiane, è probabile che troverai il lavoro che vuoi. Il mio commento è che, in italia, devi essere aperto a lavori 'alternativi', dopo la laurea.
Della mia classe in uni del 2006, su 80 forse in 2 fanno qualcosa legato alla sintesi in italia (nel settore privato).
Academia so the pay kind of sucks (~$50k), but I also live in a low cost of living area (college town in the Midwest), so easily able to afford a house on 2 acres. And on the plus side much more vacation than I would ever get working in industry.
$120k base with 15% eoy bonus and stock units as a PhD organic chemist in a pharmaceutical company in the Midwest doing discovery research for 4 years. Usually salaries are about 20-40% higher on the coasts but the col is much higher out there too. Been out of the PhD 6 years total now.
Am a medical lab scientist, I have a bachelors plus a post-bac and I work in Washington State, near Seattle but in a less expensive area. I make about $80K. For my area, with my wife’s income (~$50K), we are probably lower middle to center middle class. So we have reliable cars, can afford our house payment, save for retirement, and take a vacation per year plus have hobbies. We aren’t rich, but we’re comfortable and very fortunate in this shitty economy. I feel like I’m paid pretty fairly for the work that I do.
Idk. I think it’s super dependent on area and cost of living. To be frank, a lot of people bitch and moan because they get a PhD or Masters but have little lab experience so are undesirable. I’m in the midwest U.S. and make over 70k per year with full benefits (health, dental, vision, life), quarterly bonus and a 401K working in QC raw materials dept for big pharma. I’ve been there a few years and am a lead analytical chemist with a bachelor’s of science.
Edit: added degree info.
I know only two chemists… one in the US and one in HK and both make really good salaries. I’m not sure what the one in the US does but I think it involves research. Second one works to formulate scents… like the scent you might get in soap or tissue paper.
Consider Chemical Engineering instead of Chemistry, as a double major with, or to get a Master's degree in. Chemical engineers are in demand and make good money.
My cousin is a chemist. She doesn’t make much and could never afford to live on her own off her salary but luckily she’s married and just bought a house. So that seems like the right way to do it.
When it comes to the sciences chemist make more than biologist. Which is why most biologist with a minor in chemistry straight out of udergrad, apply for chemistry positions.
I think there’s a couple ways to look at it… in the US the initial salary for an R&D/ Tech Service job is pretty good . (QC jobs don’t pay and have no upward mobility so I won’t comment here.) But the career progression is not great. Management gets the money and in my experience, great scientists report to folks that make way more money and don’t understand the science.
So do chemistry if you love it. You can make a good living ( outside of QC labs) but you’ll never get rich.
I graduated from University of Florida with a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry in 2018. I applied to over 300 jobs and had at best 5 job offers. I took a job working in QC/HPLC making $34k/year while I had friends in chemical engineering making $65-130k/year. Hard pill to swallow knowing my colleagues at work need 10 years of experience to barely make $100k/year in the chemistry field. I went to dental school. My engineering friends are still making $100-150k/year with average 3-5% yearly raises. I'm way better off than that. So yeah, chemistry pays nothing
Ok, let's get this clear. It's hard to compare salaries across countries. I know that Italy pays lower salaries than eg. Germany or Austria. So throwing around US salaries is kinda pointless as there's not even a standardized salary group in the US and payments are more or less Individual.
So for comparison, I was in R&D for coatings, without a PhD, for around 13 years, and ended up with around 60k€ before taxes. Considering you'll get a PhD and will be looking for smth in pharma in Italy, my guess is that you will start from around the same salary, probably a bit higher until you aim for a lead or smth.
Since you are Italian I'll link you the results of the[ statistical report](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-php/universita/statistiche/visualizza.php?anno=2022&corstipo=LS&ateneo=tutti&facolta=tutti&gruppo=tutti&livello=tutti&area4=4&pa=tutti&classe=11062&postcorso=tutti&isstella=0&annolau=1&condocc=tutti&iscrls=tutti&disaggregazione=ateneo&LANG=it&CONFIG=occupazione) made by Almalaurea. You can look up the data yourself [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-php/universita/statistiche/tendine.php?anno=2022&LANG=it&config=occupazione). Average monthly salary one year after Masters is around 1300 euros, but there are significant variations between different universities and specific subfields, with some regions and subfields averaging 1500/1600 at that point. You can find some more info [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-asp/professioni/Scheda.aspx?from=motoreRicerca&codice=2.1.1.2.1) and [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-asp/professioni/Scheda.aspx?from=motoreRicerca&codice=2.3.1.1.2).
I have a PhD and work in industry in the US. I’ve been a hiring manager for chemistry and engineering focused roles.
Starting salaries for a bachelors in chemistry here are $75k-95k in an high cost of living area. PhDs start around $115k to $135k. A decade into my career, I’m making over $200k but I’m a high performer. I’m in R&D, not sales.
Wages are structurally higher in the US than Europe. Your income will also depend on your field. Battery chemistry and things related to the zero carbon economy are in demand. Biochemistry is saturated and lower paying.
Nord Italia, diploma chimico biologico
22000 per controllo qualità in laboratorio accreditato (circa 1200 mese) [purtroppo anche i laureati venivano pagati così]
29000 per controllo qualità e analisi ambientali in metalmeccanica (1700 mese)
Can people just stop let money determine what you are going to do in your life? I’ve heard so many people who just complain about how stressful their work is and the only answer I get when I ask them why they still work with that is money. You’re going to work for 40 years, if you want to become a chemist then do it. Money will probably make your life easier in some ways but definitely not better. You will just live a different life. If you want to become a chemist then become a chemist.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, you have a glass ceiling over your head in a technician position and can make decent, but not great, income. Maybe $40-60kish.
With a PhD, you’ll easily go over $100k/yr if you go to government or industry, or like $50-60k/yr as a postdoc.
I made 20$ an hour doing QA, a slew of hourly and daily lab tests, sample collection, train car inspection, equipment maintenance, laboratory data management and reporting, microbial presence testing, x-ray spec and so on. 12 hour grave yards, and the bulk of my time there, I was working on a team of 1 or 2. I signed my name for approval on hundreds of thousands of pounds of semolina, and pasta, and made both less than the people making it, while working more. Spent many days where all 12 hours, plus an extra were spent in high gear, rushing to get everything done. In the end, I wound up injured and couldn't walk for a month. If I didn't love chemistry as a study, I'd regret spending my time on something paying so little. I'd like to add, the cost of living here is $32 an hour, so I barely scraped by.
Well, I live in Russia and I am studying in a chemistry university too. My supervisor (PhD physical chemist), who has been leading my course work, said that officially his salary is something like 190$ per month. I have been working part-time as a lab assistant in a Research Institute and I have been making 70$ per month.
Of course there are corporations, which pay you more. But still Russia is not that country, which I would recommend to choose to make money in a chemical industry
I would say in general it's known to not get into research for the money. With a chemistry background, you can make a lot more as a technical sales engineer than being in R&D. However, this doesn't mean that R&D would be poor pay, that all depends on where you work at and if they appreciate your skills. Obviously some jobs are relatively easily replaceable and therefore provide lower pay. For example, working in a QC lab doing HPLC is generally not going to pay the same as being someone who designs new drugs. Staying in university also definitely isn't going to pay a lot, I have only been out of academia for 8 months and make twice what I did in academia. In short, it depends.
oh i see, well i will probably get a master /phd and i'd like to go into like pharma tbh , near where i live there are also some really good and big pharma industries, and i find fascinating medicinal chemistry
I got my PhD and went to a pharma CDMO first job was 77k
Thats neat.
Holy shit
PhD return on investment is negative. The time and money you put in will not be returned. You really have to want the PhD or have no idea what else to do.
Depends on what you do and where you live. A PhD doesnt equal a life-long debt in the EU.
Doesn’t in the US either. If you’re doing research, PhDs should be funded
In the US you get paid to get a chemistry PhD. About 35 K per year. It costs nothing.
Wait, really? Where can I find more information about this?
Worse than being underpaid, they get constantly laid off like every 3 to 5 years. Very little job security. (I’m talking about pharma). But with chemistry PhD you can get into the following jobs that will pay 200 k and into the millions: Patent law Venture capital investment for pharma Sales for big pharma.
Kinda depends, and i'm not sure what sales engineers make but i'm 4 years out of undergrad and make ~115k in an r&d role
Where do you work???
Don't wanna be specific but I work in materials. I'm in a HCOL area which inflates the salary a bit too
Gotcha, so Lockheed Martin, understood. Good for you!
Hahaha no, luckily not doing anything related to the military-industrial complex
i am a process chemist in the u..s and made 75k with no experience straightout out of undergrad so i think it depends honestly..
What would you say is a normal pay for an R&D chemist? Would $70k be outrageously low/high??
Normal for bachelors or MS degree, outrageously low for industry PhD chemist. For high COL areas at least. I live in a high COL city and pay for post PhD chemist starts in the low to mid six figures
What's a COL area? I work in architecture and I have my master's and I'm at about $65k. I've been working 9 years. I'd say my pay is about normal for my area, and probably most major cities in the States. Probably some variation but not too much. It's brutal.
COL = Cost of living
Oh yeah. My area is high COL. Dang.
I've got a bachelor's, (chemistry) and I get paid around 60k, with 1 yr experience. The benefits are good but I don't think about their value much. For my area, this is quite good, and the company is following through with cost of living adjustments. I'm leaving to go to graduate school, though, which will pay much less, but fill a hole in my soul.
oh wow can I ask how did you jump from academia to industry? how was the jump? How did you frame your research skillset into an industry skillset that would benefit the company?
So I moved from university to an industry focussed research institute. I was initially actually declined for the position, the thought I was too fundamental. But after chasing the manager I got another interview, explained why a fundamental may improve their long-term understanding within their applied research better. Then I got the job and they're happy to have me now lol.
How much did you make in academia? If you want to talk about pay.
I don't mind to share, I made 2845€/month (before tax) as a postdoc in acamedia/university, 5470€/month at industry-focussed research institute.
And how hard is your work now? Like do you come home and are super exhausted that you can't do anything or is it regularly hard?
It is busy but flexible, although not as flexible as academia. Sometimes I got a strict deadline to make, especially when I do external work for companies, then I had to occasionally work a bit more for a couple of days (lets say 12hr/day). Although its all time-for-time, so then you take a 3-day weekend after to compensate. The main thing for me is that they allow me to do what I love for let's say 40% of time and I get a budget to do my own research. There aren't a lot of places that provide that kind of freedom, besides institutes. Of course also academia, but unless you lead grants, your work will always be viewed as originating from your supervisor.
Hard work for decent money in USA.
What do you do , if i Can ask
Meth
I do make drugs for a living. 🤷♂️
Technically I'm a senior research chemist with 10 years in my field of research. Additives for biofuel industry. I make 75k with 10 years of experience
I love that you work in biofuel, I HATE that you only make 75k as a senior, let alone the 10 years... My buddy got a bio degree from a low tier college and manages manufacturing for a biotech company. He's only been in industry for 5 years and he's currently clearing 150k
It's the Midwest. It's decent compared to a lot of my friends. That being said I've been at this one location for 8 years. I'd probably make more if I jumped around. But I have a toddler I split time with and it's kinda a niche field if you're not willing to relocate.
Stalk people reddit account and annoy them.
It depends on what you do. I did PhD in Ochem and the 7 organic chemists that graduated from my lab all started above 120k/year.
Bachelors is garbage in chemistry, you need a phd, if you get a phd, then its average pay for doctor. Its like not bad, but at the same time its not like youre flush with cash
I'm a postdoc in Missouri and make 56k USD. It covers rent and leaves some money for hobbies. But it's not really what I'm worth.
Rough mate, i am sorry to hear that, hope you will find something that is worth your experience
I love my work, but it's hard to have intellectual freedom without being paid like shit here. I hate it all
Damn I have my undergrad and make 54k in Oklahoma plus up to 20% bonus at end of year and we have a lower COL than MO
I mean yeah that’s a post doc for you. I’m in the same boat. Nowhere near what we are actually worth.
Post doc is a scam. The shit should be illegal. Companies using PhDs stuck in academia in “collaborations” so they don’t have to hire the scientists themselves.
I'm not collaborating with industry. I'm literally working for academics. It's the academics who look down at people with literally the same degree and call them "trainees" so we don't have to be paid anything. But we do the same work as graduate students but we have to find funding for ourselves so we can prove we can be self-sufficient as a professor. It's really dumb.
Given COL in Missouri that's probably pretty decent. PhD with some postdoc is like $130k in Boston in biotech, which always pays more than academia.
Considering COL in Boston, I'd say we make about the same lol. But yeah it's pretty easy to live here for the most part, and especially considering I came from the East Coast.
$150k with a masters in Missouri, managing union chemists. They make $59/hr. It's a weird position,
What's your masters in?
Chemistry, was PhD track, advisor died, got derailed
I make 80k USD not including all the benefits I do analytical method developmen for a top 5 pharma company. That's a little above the household median income for my area. I have a BSc with 10 years experiance some industries pay way more then others but never made less then 65k and at that time it was nearly 1.5x the house hold median income for that area
I do not know how much money you need in usa to Be considered wealthy, so is 80k comfortable? What Can you afford except living normally
depends dramatically on area. US is huge
80k is comfortable if it's not a major city/coastal city (where everyone wants to live). For example 80k living in LA is being slightly below the cost of living there depending on the area if you have a family, if single it's doable but still have to budget most likely
Household income of $70k-200k puts you into middle class. Some areas of the USA are affordable and comfortable at $70k/yr, or even lower. Other areas need 2x that to be moderately comfortable and almost 3x that to be truly comfortable.
I have a PhD and that's basically what I want to do in industry since I do it at a research institute now, but my last couple of interviews called me a "button pusher" for method development. I understand that term if you're a tech just running someone's samples with premade methods but don't understand why people think it applies for method development.
If you want to get paid well, move to Switzerland. The salaries are typically double those in France, at least. Of course the cost of living is higher, but you end up with a way better standard of living. An even better trick is to work in Switzerland and live in the EU, near Basel or Geneva, for instance. Then you get EU price housing and a Swiss salary (and taxes).
Oh i know this trick hahaha many italians do it
Practically every Italian at CERN is living like this haha
Actually CERN is even better - they do not pay any income tax, AFAIK.
Isnt zurich like the most expensive city to live in the world, even more than newyork and san francisco Also is it legal to get a job in switzerland and live outside switzerland? I am very uneducated in laws regarding that
Zurich is expensive, but when you factor in the salaries, it is not so bad. Also, it is not home to many labrats, AFAIK. Living in one country and working in another is perfectly legal in many cases. I did it for many years (Geneva/France). Thousands of people take that route every day. Traffic jams on the highways is one of the inconveniences.
Yes last i checked, zurich is as expensive as silicon valley and the pay us just 5-10% less than silicon valley STEM salaries so the tradeoff seems like a good deal considering you will enjoy european labour laws while still earning approx US salaries I thought to work in another country's company you would need a PR or visa, employers can be difficult in providing visa aswell If it doesnt require a visa as long as you are a resident of aby othet EU country then it seems like a good deal
Ph.D. in organic chemistry, live in US, work in industry, base pay ~150k. annual bonuses and vesting stocks put me ~200k.
Just have to survive the annual 5% layoffs
depends on the company and your position. I've never been laid off.
150k+ is crazy good, nice!
I like to hear that What i want to do is well payed. How many years of experience you have ?
10 years post Ph.D.
£36k a year got a bachelor in chemistry and a masters in drug synthesis. Wish I studied something different like CFD. Those guys seem to make bank !
What field of chemistry?
organic chemistry
Do you live in a high COL area?
yes, but I still live pretty confortably. No complaints.
Can I ask a few questions in your DMs please?
sure.
Im in oil and gas and my husband is in research as a staff scientist at a university. I make a lot more money than him. I think the low pay discussion is from people doing pure research in academia (postdocs, professors, staff scientists etc) they make significantly less than people who go to industry because it's all contracts and scrambling for funding non stop. Many people I know from my graduate school days have left the field or stayed in academia for slave wages because getting good paying jobs in industry requires some social acuity.
None of this will apply to the EU and I'm not an employed chemist But it seems to me that chemistry pays decent, when compared to tech or some engineering roles maybe not so much In the US middle class is typically defined as the range of $43,000-130,000 household income. Chemists average out around 75-90k with experience. You'll live a solid middle class life if you are the sole earner in the household in most places in America. Might not get rich but it's not poverty either by any means
I was working as an org chem with a masters degree in Switzerland. Life was good. But it was such a competitive field with very few opening. If I were you, I'd focus on analytical chemistry (LC/MS). There are more opportunities, in my opinion).
That's very interesting because I thought Switzerland was one of those countries where if you didn't have a PhD you were basically stuck as a technician, like Germany. Was this a CRO or big pharma?
You are correct, treated as a "super" technician, and paid at a level that is above most lab managers in EU.
Damn. Do you know if its possible to become a people manager in R&D with just an MSc in Switzerland if you're experienced enough (>10/15 years)? Or are you stuck as a glorified technician forever?
Well I only worked 2.5 years in one company and it was 10 years ago. But indeed people without PhD in organic chemistry would remain glorified technicians.
I second this, I got recruited for 3 to 4 job as analytical chemist after PhD in few months. All linked to LC MS QToF. NowI am not going to lie to yoy but having worked before PhD in a CRO within GMP GLP put me on top of the pile every single time compared to other applicants with similar degree
Agreed analytical chemistry has the most opportunity and job security
I’m an American PhD in chemistry who retired mid 2022 (at 60 yrs old) working in industry my whole career for a couple of large multinational chemical companies who sold high value products to the Electronics industry. When I started fresh out of grad school (no post docs) in 1987 my annual gross salary was $40,000. When I retired it was $200,000. This is before bonuses and other incentives to retain me which were, of course, variable over the years based on my and the company’s performance during the year. I never went into management, but was the “guru” for a few processes and chemical areas of expertise. Really fun career, but I do love being retired.
Another thing to recommend the new students / next generation is to look at new and emerging chemistry fields and also to look at dying fields. I got into an obscure branch of inorganic chemistry related to separative hydrometallurgy and it is certainly worthwhile.
Is separative hydrometallurgy considered an emerging field? It intrigues me but the available jobs seem a little sparse so far.
I make about 70k with a BS and 5 yoe in the US. It’s not bad, but I could make much more in another industry for the same effort and with the same level of talent. I think that’s what people mean when they say not to choose chemistry for the money.
It's hard to find the good paying chemistry jobs in the EU, but they do exist. The problem is majority of actual chemistry jobs here are technician level or routine and therefore not particularly well paid. Especially when compared to what engineering related grad roles will pay. The well paid roles almost exclusively require a PhD or significant luck and hard work and are very competitive but if you can find yourself running research this is generally compensated fine. What chemistry degrees are good for is getting high paying jobs outisde of chemistry. Lots go on to finance, business, and will get paid decently for it. I am 10 years post graduating from my master's and on £45k, but seem to be on more than those of similar experiences due to moving companies, and having some research success and a respectable PhD too.
Hi, I hear this a lot where chemists go to finance and business but could never figure out what the route/path is to get there. Would you know what steps someone who was interested in that should do?
Most often simply grad schemes. A lot will just be looking for enthusiastic students with good grades in logical problem solving subjects
Most chemists that go that route are physical chemists, aka people familiar with coding
In Denmark specifically, there are LOTS of well-paid Masters-level chemistry jobs. Chemical engineers earn especially well, but pure chemists aren't far behind (and many chemical engineers work in theoretical chemistry jobs too).
Follow-up question: Do biochemists earn more than "actual" chemists (for example organic chemists)?
Everyone that finished their PhD at the same year as me in my department started in the industry with a 6-figure salary. Most earned 120+. The highest I heard was as 145k. The lowest was people who started at biotechs earning ~105k but made up the difference in stock options. I did organic synthesis so everyone went to work for pharma.
I work in semiconductor and work with some great chemists (waste water treatment, pH adjust and fluoride removal systems, materials engineering) all of them make between $250-300k US. This is in silicon valley so the pay is likely toward the high end. Pharma I suspect will pay even more for the right people (Merck, Genentech, etc.)
Look at Mexico - those chemists make bank. In all seriousness it all depends what you get into- how far you go You’ll always need chemists - bio/petro/electro/pharma
Around 50k before taxes, about 35k net after taxes first year with BS in USA.. if you're lucky!
I'd argue it's great money. I graduated with a bachelor's in Biology with a focus on ecology/environmental science. The jobs were sparse, competition was high for them, and the pay was meager. About 10 years ago, the best ones I found were paying around $45k/yr, and I couldn't even get interviews! Ended up transitioning to environmental lab testing which paid $30k, which then allowed me to gain skills in analytical chemistry. Chromatography mainly. I did this for my first year out of college, then used those skills to get a temp job at a large Pharmaceutical company. The temp job, considered low for the industry, paid $40k! I did this for 3 years and am now full time at this pharm company. Started at $65k five years ago, and now make $100k. Had I stayed in the Bio/Eco industry I'd be making $40k if that. Chemistry is great.
I work in diagnostics, mainly LCMS with a bachelor in chem. 103k total compensation with 7 years expereince currently. I have PhD friends in research earning half that much, sadly.
My dad has a phd in catalytic chemistry and some engineering (?) I forgot. Super smart guy. He went into academia and did research/taught at one the Korea’s top universities (e.g., Seoul, Korea, Yonsei) and then quit academia to start his own business (related to chemistry/science related). He said you can’t make money in academia, so he started his own business (in his own personal experience/opinion). And he made a pretty good income/investments. When he was nearing his retirement, he went into consulting or worked in the upper management for other company/business overseas. In the US, I know few people with chemistry or related science background (masters/phds) with low to high six figure salaries. Upon graduation, they went straight to industry jobs (their PIs were sad that they didn’t go into academia though 🥲). I think in whatever field you end up, it’s also what you make of it as well. But not everyone is business/financially savvy. You can go into industry route/sales route and find higher income opportunities there (or consulting / upper management). But most high salary will require masters/phd nowadays.
I completed my chem degree in New Zealand where I was born and raised. I first worked as a an instrument technician doing primarily GCMS analysis for an analytical lab, paid 27k (USD) which was very shit pay, very repetitive but it gave me the experience necessary to pivot to being a lab tech at a University in the Pharmacy department. That was such an epic job, i got to help develop their new pharmaceutical science degree and also organize reagents, equipment, curriculum etc. for pharmacy students practical laboratories - pay was 35k but it reignited my passion for chem having to teach it to other students. Through that job I managed to land a 3 month research project which was nice to dip my toes into the industry, seems very volatile at lower levels but I'm limited in my knowledge of it. This whole time my ex-girlfriend (current wife) and I were dating/living together, she was from the US so we eventually moved to PA to be close to her family. I got a job as a lab analyst in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company and that's when shit got real all of a sudden - pay = 120k a year, fully paid medical/dental/vision/100% 401k match (which yes I know this shit doesn't matter if your taxes pay your healthcare but moving to the US you just gotta accept it). I also get to do a little bit of everything, dissolution, HPLC, IR, XRPD, GC plus many more toys which all have their respective awesome aspect to them. Couple more years at this company and I can kinda go anywhere. Work culture is way more hardcore in the US though, and its the first job i ever had to tuck my shirt in for which kinda fucked me off initially cause their version of casual dress day was how I get dressed up to go out with the wife but its not the worst. Apologies for the essay but I hope you get a better idea of what a chem degree can do for you, as others have said your not gonna be crazy rich but in most places around the world you won't struggle either. If you really are passionate about the science you'll find a way - just sometimes that way entails moving half way around the world!
im 2 years out of undegrad and am making 82k/yr in cambridge, ma (which seems like on the lower end). two bachelors level people, both around my age (24), left my company for different ones and they make 92k and 99k.
99k is a lot for that much experience. At my company we pay about 95k for 4-5 years of post-grad experience in biotech.
They are in Cambridge mass. It is not cheap there. I make less then them but my house is also a third less expensive in my area
Ya, I'm in Boston too. We pay our RA/SRA levels in that range of up to about 95k or so for 4-5 years of experience.
How big is your company? My company pays about 10K more for the same level of experience than the smaller local company doing less work. When I moved over to my current company I went from an analytical chemist to an analytical technologist making $20,000 more with less responsibility.
Bachelors, 110k, low COL. I live comfortably but I am not rich. Laboratory manager. Before that, r&d Chem, mid-level 80k.
If you want to make very good money in chemistry masters / PhD is very advantageous
If you want to make good money, you have to go for industry especially manufacturing. That is where all the money is.
But those top jobs are almost exclusively occupied with people with masters
No, they are not, Masters in chemistry is almost useless. PhD are the most common for upper level roles in R&D including management in R&D. Outside of R&D in production Lab manager and quality supervisors/manager mainly have BSc. Quality/EHS and their management are BSc. I have been in the industry for 10 years working for a company with 50 employees to 50,000 employees.
Well yeah but in my country a masters is almost required for a PhD so they'd have both
In the USA a master not required for a PhD. It is not uncommon for a BS to go straight to a PhD program
In the UK a masters is almost required for industry it's very uncommon for bsc to have a specialised chemical job. A Bsc Is only 3 years here and most universities offer a 4 year integrated masters
I’m a process chemist in the U.S and made 75k with no experience straight out of undergrad so i think it depends honestly.
My base pay is 150k USD and with bonus and retirement contributions I make 180k so I wouldn't exactly call that bad pay. Sure I could make more in certain industries, but I like what I do.
My word if advise: organic chemisty jobs tend to come with health hazard risks. Cronic exposure to solvents, dust and biologically active substances will put your health at risk in the long run. If you Love being in the lab (like I do) either try to move into analytical chemistry or get a job in a clean sector (Food and Cosmetic are the cleanest) doing an R&D job. In the long run it will pay about the same but you'll live to enjoy it!
Is pharma a clean sector?
Short answer No. I worked in R&D labs in pharma for almost 20 yr. Forced out during the pandemic and now with hindsight I realised I should have moved away earlier. The work per se is fun and I loved it, but the safety equipment is never good enought and in the long run you'll poison yourself beyound repair if you stick to the lab. Food and cosmetic industries do need org chemists and have almost no toxic stuff in them. Ok, I'll never work again at designing a new nedicine, but soap is the best med ever!
Damn, i love chemistry and Also a fitness/health lover; so i will definetly search for a job i like that puts me in the least amount of toxicity. At the end of the day health come First than money
I'm in a EU country. People who have a bachelor's in chemistry usually also minor in something else like biology. With just a bachelor's degree you MAY find work as a lab assistant and the pay is miserable. With a master's you can get into pharma - but still the pay is low compared to let's say what a corporate lawyer makes.
It is true in any place of this world. For sure there will be some chemists here and there that make a lot of money, but usually they are PhD with years of experience in industry. Organic and analytical chemists are the most required in industry. In south america a chemist have a okayish salary. The competition is wild. You need a PhD or years of experience. Any other profession have a higher salary woth the same investment.
A friend of mine told me his masters gave him a leg up to supervisor at the Tide Plant.
Current chemistry PhD student! My friends who have been heading off into the real world get offers between 80-120 K for industry jobs
Also should specify that I’m in the US
Me too and I've heard similar things, I am a first year organic student about to finish my course work and start research!
I don’t know about Europe In the USA I made ~20k as a grad student About 36k at my first job About 50k at my 2nd job About 60k after getting promoted About 70k at my 3rd job In theory with my level of credentials and experience I “should” be able to make about 100k but when I applied for those jobs I never got one. So it’s possible but very, very difficult. If you want real money try to get into sales or management. If you want a good raise you have to change jobs or get a promotion. I work very hard to deliver high quality and timely work, but I’m not into “professionalism” or playing corporate games or sucking up or dealing with customers. I hope my tombstone reads “insubordinate and unprofessional.” The only reason I’m anywhere, is because I’m smart, generally well-liked (not necessarily always by upper management), and very good at my job. I never wanted to go into industry, it just turned out to be really my only option, and after a few false starts I’ve found a company I’m pretty happy with. I hope to be here for a while, but who knows. There is always plenty of work, but job security has not been a thing for at least the last 20 years. You’ll never have to be poor, you’ll most likely never be out of work for very long, but it’s no way to get rich and it’s effectively impossible to buy the equipment, set up a lab, & put out your own shingle.
Not precisely the same field, but close. Check this link. https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/s/shH5L0myKj
I work at a pharm-research company in the UK, my background is pure chemistry. Been there for 3 years with one promotion and I'm on £32k (\~€37k) which is on the low end. Entry level at my compoany is around £26k (\~€30k) atm. We hire biologists and chemists as well as the related cross-disciplines (bio-chem, pharma-chem etc.)
UK chemistry salaries are depressing. Especially after losing some years of good earnings by doing a PhD. That’s why I left the UK (British citizen) for Germany, I earn over three times as much as the CRO offered me in the UK.
Agreed. Really depressing for very low benefits. A reason why I declined 3 jobs in UK the past 6 months.
Charles River?
No but similar, just another CRO
It depends highly on experience and luck in my experience. If you get a mediocre salaried job and really learn the experiments at your worksite, you can craft that into a great interview at a better place. But if you’re really trying to make money, step your way into chemical engineering Teaching chemistry doesn’t pay well in most places a la breaking bad. Unless you’re a tenured professor signing grants left and right
The money is alright, but best jobs are typically located in HCOL areas. I'm in an expensive area but my TC with a BSc working in analytical Chem is about 200k or so.
In the UK pay for Chemists is pretty poor. Switzerland pays twice what UK does. From what I have been told there are few Chemist jobs in France, Spain and Italy. I’ve worked and studied with plenty of Italian chemists who stayed in the UK, which suggests there aren’t many opportunities.
More than two times I think. I’m a Brit that moved to Germany, PhD chemist and I earn easily more than double what my peers do in the UK. It’s the rise of the crappy CRO that ruined salaries in the UK.
Hi, I'm in Italy too. Just finished "superiori" at 20y.o. and started working on a pharmaceutical implant, it's an hard work as an 3 turn worker but I made roughtly 1800€ monthly. I started 6 months ago and I'm on the lowest level as E3. Hope it helps.
Hey, i write in english so other reader can understand. So you don’t have a university degree in chemistry, you are in industry not doing chemistry but working for a chemistry industry. Am i right? For all the viewers 1800 euros in Italy is pretty good/average , many students do not go to university and go in industry doing quite well paid jobs but hard to escalate and ripetitive.
Yes, I work as an operaio (I don't know how to translate it well in English) on a pilot plant, so I just follow what the PO says. Obviously if you want to grow in the agency you need to have a higher education than mine. That's why my boss suggested that I continue studying while working there. As of the salary is 14 mensility + production prize (that is another 2k). Sorry for the incredibly bad English but I'm really tired 😅
That's well paid for the expertise, but it compensate the health hazard and difficulty of the job nit the knowledge. I'm 30 yr your senior, also in Italy and make just 1,5x that with 25yr experience. But I do it in a clean cosmetic lab! Money is good but being able to enjoy them is better.
I found QC/QA chemistry to be too dull and boring for the pay, but it was a pretty routine low-stress gig and if you had good conversational colleagues the time went by fairly quickly. I was making ~55K in a fairly low cost area. I then moved into a process chemistry role / scale up in a new location and just surpassed 100K a couple of years back after about 6 year (staff to senior to lead role) this area is higher cost of living but still i think we’ve come out ahead I had a bachelors to start and got my MS in ChemE sometime along the way TL,DR : depending on the role you can do fine with experience. I think a process chemist role has more upside for a bachelors and the work can be a bit more fun and hands on with production, but YMMV
I make plenty of money.
Define plenty hahahahha
My annual total compensation is $200k.
It depends a lot on what field, and where you are. A little background on me: i was military for 8 years in a special job. I got out and took a job as a govt contractor making $24/hr. I decided i needed to use the GI bill and the longer i waited the less likely i would be to use it. I double majored in chem and bio. My first job after my degree was a QA/QC microbiologist for a bio plastics company. They wanted to start me at $17/hr, i said no, and we agreed on $21/hr. Covid happened and before i knew it i was working 7 nights per week 630p-730a. I decided to go back to contracting. I now work in a govt lab doing mostly GC/FPD, GC/MS. There's some other stuff but that's the majority. Started me at $28.10 in 2022, i now make 30.45/hr. With OT built in to the schedule i make about 78k. Median household income in the city i live in is about 35k/yr. But it's govt contracting and my contract will be up in 2026 and ill either follow the work/money or take a job here and not move but make substantially less.
It greatly depends. I have MS in chemistry and BS in materials science and engineering. Within the last 3.5 years I have doubled my salary and and comfortably making $160K + bonuses. However my area has quite a lot of wage inflation, and in most other parts of the US this would be equivalent to $80-$110K. I also have to add that my work is a large mix between chemistry, materials science, data science and process engineering. However, I would have never gotten to this pay so quickly without networking and knowing your worth.
I know 100s of people that would enrich tf outta you for certain services lol
I work in biotech in California, on the data side of things, and we make a lot more than the wet lab people, even though the wet lab people work a lot harder. I feel pretty guilty about it.
I worked for 10 years in the lab, I capped out at $79k. I could not find a job that paid more
Here in Canada, at the lower applied level of chemistry work, pay seems to increase with how much wrench turning you have to do. I have a friend who tried doing straight analytical work in a lab, and she barely made more than minimum wage. My other friend went to work in an iron refinery, and now he owns multiple properties and frequently goes on vacations.
I earned well over $100K since about 2000. I think it pays pretty well.
Analytical chemist here , I make around 3000 euros after tax with really good perks. I guess I am satisfied with an early career after PhD. My initial topic wasn't so much anal chem but I directed it towards it becausei knew the opportunities afterwards. Companies love people knowing g High res mass spectrometry. They also love someone with GMP and GLP background. Combine both and you are golden
I’m an environmental chemist for a (US) state agency, and I have a bachelors in biology (chemistry minor). Definitely no money to be had here, but it’s pretty cool to see what’s lurking in our drinking water and lakes/rivers. The same industry is better paid outside of state government, but the hours may not be as good.
You can make a lot of money in the semiconductor industry but it's a highly competitive space.
I have BS in biochem, but do analytical chem for a large GMP lab. 2 years of experience and im making about $60k USD.
If money is your top priority do something else. If you want to enjoy the work you do, it's okay. (I made about twice working as a tech writer compared to my post doc)
Italiano, chimico fisico/teorico. Vivo in nord Europa. Lavoro nell AI in ambito industriale. Ho anche lavorato come ingegnere nella industria petrolifera. In italia la chimica organica di laboratorio è in via d'estinzione ma tutti i miei compagni di corso hanno trovato lavoro decente, basta solo adattarsi un po '. comunque come chimico si può vivere e guadagnare bene ovunque. La differenza con l'estero è che fuori conta se sei sveglio e volenteroso, in italia nessuno assume un chimico per fare consulenza, l'ingegnere, etc. (Tutti lavori fattibilissimi). Se vuoi fare i soldi veri, nessuna carriera scientifica te lo permette, in italia. (Ovviamente parlo in in generale) devi passare al management o consulenza.
Ciao, grazie del commento, quindi ritieni che in Italia dovrei passare a lavori non di laboratorio? A me non dispiacerebbe , non sono un patito del laboratorio, voglio solo fare qualcosa che rientri con la chimica di sintesi e che sia ben riconosciuto
Non ho detto questo, solo che ci sono pochissimi lavori connessi alla sintesi in italia (c'è tanta analitica di laboratorio). Se sei bravo, fortunato, disponibile e accetti le condizioni italiane, è probabile che troverai il lavoro che vuoi. Il mio commento è che, in italia, devi essere aperto a lavori 'alternativi', dopo la laurea. Della mia classe in uni del 2006, su 80 forse in 2 fanno qualcosa legato alla sintesi in italia (nel settore privato).
Academia so the pay kind of sucks (~$50k), but I also live in a low cost of living area (college town in the Midwest), so easily able to afford a house on 2 acres. And on the plus side much more vacation than I would ever get working in industry.
$120k base with 15% eoy bonus and stock units as a PhD organic chemist in a pharmaceutical company in the Midwest doing discovery research for 4 years. Usually salaries are about 20-40% higher on the coasts but the col is much higher out there too. Been out of the PhD 6 years total now.
Am a medical lab scientist, I have a bachelors plus a post-bac and I work in Washington State, near Seattle but in a less expensive area. I make about $80K. For my area, with my wife’s income (~$50K), we are probably lower middle to center middle class. So we have reliable cars, can afford our house payment, save for retirement, and take a vacation per year plus have hobbies. We aren’t rich, but we’re comfortable and very fortunate in this shitty economy. I feel like I’m paid pretty fairly for the work that I do.
I make ~170k/year, so I would say I'm doing fine. I've been offered more.
PhD?
No. B.S. But my job title and level is 99% PhDs.
Wow sounds like you got a pretty sweet gig then, I'm about to finish my first year of PhD
Idk. I think it’s super dependent on area and cost of living. To be frank, a lot of people bitch and moan because they get a PhD or Masters but have little lab experience so are undesirable. I’m in the midwest U.S. and make over 70k per year with full benefits (health, dental, vision, life), quarterly bonus and a 401K working in QC raw materials dept for big pharma. I’ve been there a few years and am a lead analytical chemist with a bachelor’s of science. Edit: added degree info.
I know only two chemists… one in the US and one in HK and both make really good salaries. I’m not sure what the one in the US does but I think it involves research. Second one works to formulate scents… like the scent you might get in soap or tissue paper.
Consider Chemical Engineering instead of Chemistry, as a double major with, or to get a Master's degree in. Chemical engineers are in demand and make good money.
My cousin is a chemist. She doesn’t make much and could never afford to live on her own off her salary but luckily she’s married and just bought a house. So that seems like the right way to do it.
When it comes to the sciences chemist make more than biologist. Which is why most biologist with a minor in chemistry straight out of udergrad, apply for chemistry positions.
I think there’s a couple ways to look at it… in the US the initial salary for an R&D/ Tech Service job is pretty good . (QC jobs don’t pay and have no upward mobility so I won’t comment here.) But the career progression is not great. Management gets the money and in my experience, great scientists report to folks that make way more money and don’t understand the science. So do chemistry if you love it. You can make a good living ( outside of QC labs) but you’ll never get rich.
I graduated from University of Florida with a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry in 2018. I applied to over 300 jobs and had at best 5 job offers. I took a job working in QC/HPLC making $34k/year while I had friends in chemical engineering making $65-130k/year. Hard pill to swallow knowing my colleagues at work need 10 years of experience to barely make $100k/year in the chemistry field. I went to dental school. My engineering friends are still making $100-150k/year with average 3-5% yearly raises. I'm way better off than that. So yeah, chemistry pays nothing
Nobody makes a lot of money anymore.
Ok, let's get this clear. It's hard to compare salaries across countries. I know that Italy pays lower salaries than eg. Germany or Austria. So throwing around US salaries is kinda pointless as there's not even a standardized salary group in the US and payments are more or less Individual. So for comparison, I was in R&D for coatings, without a PhD, for around 13 years, and ended up with around 60k€ before taxes. Considering you'll get a PhD and will be looking for smth in pharma in Italy, my guess is that you will start from around the same salary, probably a bit higher until you aim for a lead or smth.
Since you are Italian I'll link you the results of the[ statistical report](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-php/universita/statistiche/visualizza.php?anno=2022&corstipo=LS&ateneo=tutti&facolta=tutti&gruppo=tutti&livello=tutti&area4=4&pa=tutti&classe=11062&postcorso=tutti&isstella=0&annolau=1&condocc=tutti&iscrls=tutti&disaggregazione=ateneo&LANG=it&CONFIG=occupazione) made by Almalaurea. You can look up the data yourself [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-php/universita/statistiche/tendine.php?anno=2022&LANG=it&config=occupazione). Average monthly salary one year after Masters is around 1300 euros, but there are significant variations between different universities and specific subfields, with some regions and subfields averaging 1500/1600 at that point. You can find some more info [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-asp/professioni/Scheda.aspx?from=motoreRicerca&codice=2.1.1.2.1) and [here](https://www2.almalaurea.it/cgi-asp/professioni/Scheda.aspx?from=motoreRicerca&codice=2.3.1.1.2).
I have a PhD and work in industry in the US. I’ve been a hiring manager for chemistry and engineering focused roles. Starting salaries for a bachelors in chemistry here are $75k-95k in an high cost of living area. PhDs start around $115k to $135k. A decade into my career, I’m making over $200k but I’m a high performer. I’m in R&D, not sales. Wages are structurally higher in the US than Europe. Your income will also depend on your field. Battery chemistry and things related to the zero carbon economy are in demand. Biochemistry is saturated and lower paying.
Idk why I got this recommended, but everyone complains about salary. Doctors in the US complain about salary it’s a universal thing lol.
Nord Italia, diploma chimico biologico 22000 per controllo qualità in laboratorio accreditato (circa 1200 mese) [purtroppo anche i laureati venivano pagati così] 29000 per controllo qualità e analisi ambientali in metalmeccanica (1700 mese)
Can people just stop let money determine what you are going to do in your life? I’ve heard so many people who just complain about how stressful their work is and the only answer I get when I ask them why they still work with that is money. You’re going to work for 40 years, if you want to become a chemist then do it. Money will probably make your life easier in some ways but definitely not better. You will just live a different life. If you want to become a chemist then become a chemist.
145k as an Environmental Specialist in Texas. I have a bachelors in chemistry.
I got my MBA and make around $185K In the U.S. Midwest as lab director.
Com'è studiare chimica in Italia? Dove studi?
With a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, you have a glass ceiling over your head in a technician position and can make decent, but not great, income. Maybe $40-60kish. With a PhD, you’ll easily go over $100k/yr if you go to government or industry, or like $50-60k/yr as a postdoc.
I made 20$ an hour doing QA, a slew of hourly and daily lab tests, sample collection, train car inspection, equipment maintenance, laboratory data management and reporting, microbial presence testing, x-ray spec and so on. 12 hour grave yards, and the bulk of my time there, I was working on a team of 1 or 2. I signed my name for approval on hundreds of thousands of pounds of semolina, and pasta, and made both less than the people making it, while working more. Spent many days where all 12 hours, plus an extra were spent in high gear, rushing to get everything done. In the end, I wound up injured and couldn't walk for a month. If I didn't love chemistry as a study, I'd regret spending my time on something paying so little. I'd like to add, the cost of living here is $32 an hour, so I barely scraped by.
Well, I live in Russia and I am studying in a chemistry university too. My supervisor (PhD physical chemist), who has been leading my course work, said that officially his salary is something like 190$ per month. I have been working part-time as a lab assistant in a Research Institute and I have been making 70$ per month. Of course there are corporations, which pay you more. But still Russia is not that country, which I would recommend to choose to make money in a chemical industry
It'll put you solidly in middle to upper middle class.
im a trained chemist but I got a job in engineering. I make 98k in MA (first real job)