Chemists' median salaries rose 91% in 1964-66

Abstract

As prophesied by the American Chemical Society two years ago, chemists' annual salaries generally rose $1000 between 1964 and 1966 (C&EN, Dec. 6, 1965, page 90). At least, median salaries for graduate degree holders notched upward by this amount. Bachelors had to be content with a $600 increment over the same span. Overall, the median annual salary for the profession climbed 9.1% from $11,000 in 1964 to $12,000 last year. Specifically, the gains logged at each degree level looked like this, according to the Society's latest comprehensive analysis of economic data on some 53,-000 chemical scientists furnished by the National Science Foundation: A glance backward in time shows that chemists with graduate degrees have done reasonably well in this decade, posting overall gains of nearly 307c. B.S. degree holders, however, experienced only a 17% rise, largely because of the $9000 plateau they reported in 1960-62. But numbers like these tell ...