The reversal of the rent subsidy elimination proposal marked the culmination of a community effort to maintain fair compensation for postdocs. But New York’s high cost of living will ensure that continuing postdocs will barely maintain their net take home pay, despite the rent subsidy and increased salary. The question arises — do NIH guidelines and The Rockefeller University postdoc salaries (one of the highest in the country) need another upward revision soon, if this systemic problem is to be solved?

Postdoc salaries: inadequate for expensive metropolitan areas

One commonly acknowledged deficiency in the NIH’s postdoctoral salary guidelines is the absence of a clause that provides adequate cost of living adjustments. The guideline only states the minimum, does not require universities to strictly enforce it and does not factor in geographic differences in cost of living, thereby perpetuating compensation policies that are unfair.

A recent survey completed by The Scientist found that median annual income for life science postdocs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Durham (N.C.), Boston, New York, and Philadelphia hovered around $39,000. Equivalent research positions in industry (senior researcher) offered median salaries that ranged from $75,000 (Durham, N.C.) to $90,000 (San Francisco), a 20% difference that could account for cost of living differences between these locales. This fact is also captured and reiterated in an analysis performed by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using the National Compensation Survey data the bureau finds that, among the 480 occupations surveyed, workers in certain metropolitan areas consistently earn more wages than in others. Relative pay comparisons find that workers in San Francisco make 24% more than in Durham and about 3% more than in NY/NJ. These two independent surveys suggest that, unlike most other occupations, life science postdocs do not receive cost of living adjustments appropriate for their locale. Most universities in New York, while complying with the existing NIH guidelines, perpetuate the same practice.

The National Compensation Survey also shows that hourly earnings for postdoctoral salaries in life sciences, both in NY State and at the national level, lag behind most other professions. The median salary for RU postdocs (~$40,000), when translated into hourly earnings (~60 hrs/week), is approximately $14. At the national level, this hourly income places RU postdoc wages in the lowest 10th percentile of specialty professions like engineers, scientists, and teachers. The U.S. Department of Labor’s occupational wage estimates for New York State shows this hourly earning to be lower than most other natural scien-tists — $23-27/hr for agriculture scientists, geologists, chemists — and much lower than most engineering professions — $22-41/hr. In fact, firefighters, police officers, correctional officers, and detectives in NY earn median hourly wages ($23-33) and annual salaries ($45,000-57,000) that are higher than postdocs’. Among all academic and teaching professions, life science postdocs earn one of the lowest median wages; only preschool teachers ($26,500) rank significantly lower.

So, after toiling through a doctorate and attaining above-average intellectual and academic competency, postdocs find themselves in the unenviable position of providing bargain labor for society’s scientific progress. While enhancing their institutions’ and mentors’ scientific reputation (most postdocs are vital to this process) and enriching an important public good, postdocs are rewarded with wages that are inadequate for expensive metropolitan areas and lag behind many blue collar professions.

Solution?

The laws of supply and demand have played a role in depressing the wage market for postdocs. The number of Ph.D.-awarding institutions in science and engineering has doubled since the late sixties, resulting in swelling numbers of graduates. Additional Ph.D. holders from other countries have been employed and absorbed into this scientific research enterprise. But the number of tenure-track positions in academia has lagged far behind, thereby creating a bottleneck of available tenure-track positions, an abundance of labor, and consequently a low wage for postdocs. The NIH annual report in 2004 recognized this overproduction and noted that the current output of 5,400 biomedical Ph.D. graduates far outnumbers the 1,500-3,000 graduates that the current employment market requires.

If market forces are shaping postdoc wages, then where can the solution lie? It is an accepted economic principle that markets for public goods are generally inefficient (e.g. environment). As such, they may require non-market interventions to advance the prevailing conditions in that market. Non-market interventions are not uncommon in the labor market; the minimum wage is such an example. Postdocs could benefit by such an intervention — a much improved compensation policy.

A positive change in the status and compensation benefits for postdocs will come about by a series of small steps, not in one massive leap. There are indications that this process has already started, but the reality is that the pace is slow and will require additional changes in both NIH and individual university policies. It will also require some active campaigning from postdoc organizations around the country. Postdoc organizations should bring pressure on their universities and funding agencies to bring about these radical changes. They should convince these bodies that non-market interventions (new policies, much improved salary scales) are necessary in this situation. These measures, although expensive, will rectify the grossly unfair labor practice that postdocs currently face. In the meantime, postdocs around the country should continue to receive other benefits (such as rent subsidy) that add value to their overall compensation and reduce the hardships and disillusionment arising out of low wages.

References

Annual Life Sciences Salary Survey. The Scientist, Vol.18 [18]; 15 (Sep. 27, 2004).

Pay relatives for Major Metropolitan areas - http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/archive.htm, http://www.bls.gov/oes/2003/may/oes190000.htm

Malthus and Graduate Students. J.H. Ausubel. The Scientist, Vol.10 [3];11 (Feb. 5, 1996).

http://grants.nih.gov/training/nas_report