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The Question
(Submitted March 03, 1997)
About how much would an astrophysicist make in one year's time?
The Answer
Your question about an astrophysicist's salary is not easy to answer. There
are many factors which determine a scientist's salary -- such as: do you
work for an academic institution, private industry, or the government? how
many year's ago did you obtain your Ph.D.? in the United States, what part
of the country do you live in? All of these factors, and many more, will
affect how much your annual salary is.
I can tell you this....every couple of years, there is a survey of
scientists working in the United States who have obtained their Ph.D. within
the previous two years. The salaries of these folks are averaged into values
which "should" be representative of what an astrophysicist
makes when starting
their career (but it is still not sensitive to what part of the United States
one lives in!). The latest values I saw were that the average starting salary
for an astrophysicist working at an academic institution was about $40,000 US;
for working in private industry, it was about $50,000 US.
Hope this helps you.
Regards,
Laura Whitlock
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