research assistant salary

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natusss

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what is the average salary for working at a lab, right out of college? I have some experience and I am looking into full time positions.
My friend said he is getting $20/hour, but a PI told me that is way too much. What is a reasonable amount to say when they ask me "how much do you expect to make?"
Thanks
 
I make $13.50 an hour (capped at 40 hours/week) and I get health/dental. Not too shabby...
 
17.50-18.50/hr with benefits in DC
 
32 a year with full benefits for entry level research assistants with a bachelors at UCSD
 
You should try and get a research position at a pharmaceutical company for the summer. I worked at Boehringer Ingelheim in Danbury, CT. This was back in 2001 and I was paid $18/hr + free housing at West Conn campus including utilities and internet (nice, modern apartments...laundry in your apartment, AC, dishwasher, balcony) + a free shuttle service to and from work. It's not too late to apply. I actually have connections over there and would be willing to give you a contact if you are serious about it. I worked in Med Chem, but they also have Bio positions available. 🙂

I almost forgot...you also get a round-trip plane ticket from your residence. All of this applies only for the summer internship positions.
 
i make 12.50$ clinical research, overtime is time+half
 
I would think that it is highly dependent on how much experience you bring into the lab- i.e. how many publications, who you worked for, what area of expertise you have. Generally speaking though, college grads wont make too much in the science sector until they start advancing their degree.
 
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I make $9 per hour!! ...According to others ..mine is the lewest one ..that really sucks!! ...Well ..I'm actually a premed student ..so maybe that's why but still...................some respect!!
 
Salary will depend on where you are at. I went to college in an area with cheap living expenses, and you would make 28-33,000/year as a tech. I have heard of similar positions in CA for 40K+. I would look at job postings at the university's website to get an estimate, if available.

I would also recommend the NIH IRTA program. Salary is bad (23,000 + very good medical insurance), but it is a really great program.
 
I make 32K a year, no overtime, with benefits in NYC
 
oh btw - you are often going to get more with a private company, i get 32 and but my roomate at a private r&d company gets something like 40, i think (he started out lower and got a 4 thousand dollar a year raise after like 5 months)
 
I made $7/hr. But I was also getting school credit for it, so I'm not going to complain too much.

But then my money was taken away from me at the end of the fall semester 2 years ago and I was told by my PI that I should thank George Bush for my pay cut because the NIH grant had dried up.

Kaplan pays me so much better 😀
 
I get $30k/yr in Kansas City. I don't have overtime because I work as many hours as it takes, so I actually get a bit less than $15/hr. But, I have great benefits (health fully paid for, three weeks vacation, 15% contribution to retirement plan that begins vesting after only 2 years, and subsidized on campus food).

Looking at the other offers I had before working, I would guess that ~$30k is average. Lucky if you get more and you're getting screwed if you get much less.
 
I've seen anywhere from 19k-32k in NYC for entry-level at major hospitals, with bench paying less (22-26k) and clinical generally at the higher end. I think that 19k was a crazy PI. Always with full benefits and time-and-a-half overtime.
 
38,0000/ yr with health and dental in NYC...I'm funded by the department of homeland defense though...which explains the higher salary
 
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When I was looking for a job right out of college, I checked out my school's career services website which has a list of salaries for recent grads based on an annual survey. I then went with the upper range for positions in the area of the country and field I was applying (clinical research in the Northeast) for.
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/careersurveys.html I got exactly the salary I asked for at both of the places I interviewed at, but ended up choosing the one that also gave me 6 free classes per year in a post-bac program as part of their full-time employee tuition benefits. That way, no loans for the expensive post-bac I needed to complete plus money for important stuff like rent, food, et cetera.
 
i'm getting 55k/yr with benefits. though i'm working for a biotech company. corproate research typically gets paid a lot more, just less chances to publish. so go for biotech/pharma if money is an issue.
 
Wow!
 
Thanks for your replies. I was asking because I was offered $12/hour, and I doubt any benefits, but they know its a year long position.. mmh.. I guess is in the lower range.
 
$26k+ w/ benefits (and a very very cool boss) in Killadelphia
 
natusss said:
what is the average salary for working at a lab, right out of college? I have some experience and I am looking into full time positions.
My friend said he is getting $20/hour, but a PI told me that is way too much. What is a reasonable amount to say when they ask me "how much do you expect to make?"
Thanks
Click to expand...

Right out of college at UCI I started working at a lab with only undergrad lab experience making 33K. A year later Im now making 34K. And all with full benefits.
 
what's the best way to find these jobs?

and why are these forums stuck with this thread at the top saying it has 0 replies and only 1 view?
 
I currently only get paid $8.50/hr to do research. But if you are applying for full-time, year long research positions, you should get around 30-33k or so (unless you're working for the NIH 😡 ).
 
natusss said:
what is the average salary for working at a lab, right out of college? I have some experience and I am looking into full time positions.
My friend said he is getting $20/hour, but a PI told me that is way too much. What is a reasonable amount to say when they ask me "how much do you expect to make?"
Thanks
Click to expand...


I think it depends on if you're certified or not. Here in LA, a certified clinical research coordinator can make $40K/yr, which comes out to almost $20/hr. Also, I think it would depend upon who you're working for, and exactly what role you take in the research.
 
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Damn I'm making 21k/year in graduate school and getting all my tuition and fees paid for. Maybe that's a much better option then getting into the work force for about the same money. Plus, in the end, you'll have more degrees t show for your work.

Scott
 
At Penn it is about 30k per year and of course it varies by a few grand each way.
 
inside_edition said:
what's the best way to find these jobs?
Click to expand...

what I did is send my CV to the department admistrators of the departments I would like to do research at the University I want to work out. in my email, I explained that I want a full time position, and asked them if you they could forward my email to all faculty members 🙂 Good Luck!
 
I get $11/hr without benefits.
 
mid 20's in the middle of the country, probably 30's on the coast if you are at an academic center

It's not very lucrative; that's why I recommend getting some sort of licensure with an undergrad degree.
 
Damn Cmass you're all over the boards today (and im all over the refreshing the forums main page lol)
 
I think a large part of the discrepancies between salaries has to do with whether or not you're in school. if you're currently an undergrad, you are not going to be making very much $9 is about average at my school and you will not receive benefits.
people who have graduated generally make around $30,000/year with benefits.
you really cannot compare salaries pre- and post-graduation. they do not expect students to be supporting themselves with their puny $9/hr for 10 hours/week lab paychecks.
 
After reading through other people's posts, just wanted to warn the OP that some cities (can only speak for Boston and NYC) pay far less than you'd expect for research unless you a) find an extremely well-funded grant position (rare), b) work for pharma/biotech (not for everyone), or c) that DoD salary quoted.

I was always told that NYC pays more because cost of living is so enormous. Not true. That's balanced out by the giant crush of new grads that moves in every summer, driving the competition for jobs way up. I was told that my lab work/experience would drive up my salary, but found that the bench work tended to pay far less. I ended up in clinical work to barely draw 30k because that was the highest salary on offer. So, take the high end estimates with a grain of salt.
 
first year: 40K, second year: 50K with full benefits, 401K, etc...

i live in california, so it's probably a little higher...check out research positions at the VA cuz they pay pretty well with excellent benefits...
 
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