Hi Guys, When I started my BSc I was told the average graduate starting salary was around 22k (they must have been drunk cause mines nowhere near)has anyone ever produced a figure for pHd graduates?

Well it depends on which field you have your job and whether you work for a blue chip company. Obviously science jobs pay a lot less and finance a lot more hence you get that average. Reckon PhD average is not gonna be a great deal higher :(

I'm been on a post-doc salary for nearly 2 years and still not quite at 22K. I think it's well known that science is not a well paid job...unless you sell your soul to industry ;o)

Sell your soul to industry? Get over yourself, there's some great basic research done in a lot of companies. Don't be such a snob, and it's not like the salaries are astronomically better than post-doc's in academia..just a little, which is a good thing right?

;o) <--- means 'winking', i.e. making a joke. So please don't insult me!

I work at a multinational drug company (one of the big ones) we do tonnes of research 95% of which is never published for fear of giving an edge other companies which is fair enough but I think does lend the moral high ground to academia. I just cant be a lab tech anymore hence the PHD and pay cut!!

I work at a big pharma company too and do plenty of basic research...that, yeah get's published. Depends on it's merit/quality, not simply "we won't tell anyone in case Merck/Pfizer/J&J is looking over our shoulder". As for moral high ground, without knowing what you consider 'moral' to begin with I hesitate to comment further on that statement.

So how much do you guys get paid at a pharmaceutical company?

My PhD program pays a $22K stipend, which is very high, I hear. We are at a medical school/research university, so there are no teaching assistantships, either. Just a straight up stipend. I feel lucky. And it's just a state school!

I know a load of people who got graduate positions at a VERY VERY big pharma company (I think we all know which one I mean) and they were all starting on 24K (£). I guess starting with a PhD would bump it up to at least 29K? This was a couple of years ago so must have gone up a bit by now.

I'm hoping to leave it to do a PhD but at the minute I get 18K doing the more tedious lab jobs as well as a few more advanced ones.

PhD studentships sponsored by industry usually have a slightly higher salary. So you could expect to start at about £20-22K. Post-docs in industry start at £26K, if your good that could go to £29K but that's the high end of the scale esp. if your coming straight from PhD, more likely to get that if you've already done ~2yrs post-doc. Depends on the position largely. If you are thinking of post docs, and doing so in industry, the Marie Curie fellowships pay well and you qualify for the benefits that regular full time employees get.

is there a list of PHD studentships funded by industry?

I've heard it adds about £2k on your starting salary - not quite the 40 thousand you paid to get the PhD, but close!!!!