Question: 1. What is your average daily pay.
2. does your pay increase when you discover something uknown.
3. does your pay decrease if you haven't discovered something uknown for a while.
4. Do you think that scientist will ever stop discovering new things or is there always going to be something uknown in the world.
Our wage is not something that can be talked about, what you earn as a living is a bit private.
But I can give you a general wage that you can expect to earn as a scientist. When you leave university as a new graduate, you could get a job any where between $30,000 and $50,000 per a year. If you are a senior scientist with about 15-25 years experience you can earn anything from $90,000 to $150,000 per year or more. If you work out for the mining industry as an environmental scientist then a graduate could start at about 80,000 to 90,000 per year.
Pay increases will depend on where you work. You shouldn’t get a pay decrease because you have not found something. a scientist pay will increase if:
– they have received a very large grant.
– if you apply for a higher level job, like going from a researcher to a senior researcher.
– if you go back to university a do higher studies (like PhD)
The best way for a scientist to get a pay increase is to apply for a job that pays more…
I think there will always be something to discover.
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Hi cheesecake,
I remember when I was 15, I asked a woman that I was doing work experience with the same question (how much do you earn?) and she got extremely angry at me. Until then I didn’t realise that it was considered rude to ask someone what their wage was. I personally don’t mind people knowing how much I earn, but it is naturally something that many people will judge you by so it’s best not to share it with others.
Shona has been great in giving you an idea of the pay scales that you could expect as a scientist. I’m a science communicator, so I can expect different wages depending on who I’m working for (but they are generally less than an experienced scientist).
The most important thing to note is that you shouldn’t decide to work in a particular field because of how much it pays. I think you’ll find that most scientists or science communicators do what they do because they love the work. Getting paid is a bonus!
Finally, there will definitely always be something new to discover in our universe. It’s just so big and so complex. It is this idea that drives scientists on 🙂
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You don’t work in science for the money, but that said in Australia scientists are well paid in comparison to other countries. Particularly with the recent strength in the Aussie dollar.
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Shona gave a good idea of pay brackets in Australia and as Simon said the pay in Australia is very good compared to Europe and the UK.
I chose to become a scientist because I love science not because of the pay. I think if you choose a job based on the wages you will end up unhappy in your job. You have to WANT to get up in the morning and go to work. 🙂
I think the day we know EVERYTHING will be a very sad day indeed! but in all honesty i think it is highly highly unlikely that day will ever come. There is always something to be discovered. We know so little about our planet and other planets in the universe. For example, did you know that there are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water; in all, there are approximately five nonillion (5×1030) bacteria on Earth! forming a biomass that exceeds that of all plants and animals. Yet we estimate that we know virtually nothing about 98% of all bacterial species on earth! That’s just one example of how little we actually know so far!! There is still a long way to go for science. 🙂
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