There is very little information available on how much postdocs are actually paid in the U.S., beyond data on institutional salary policies gathered by the National Postdoctoral Association. Following on from recent discussions about postdoc salaries changing as a result of proposed updates to U.S. Federal labor law, we have gathered data from a selection of institutions through Freedom of Information Requests, asking only for titles and salaries of postdocs, to see if we can identify actual postdoctoral salaries. The aggregate data, and more information, can be found at out “Investigating Postdoc Salaries” Resource. Every day, we will be releasing a discussion of each individual institution or system from which we received data. Today: Rutgers University.

 

Cost for FOIA Request: $0

Additional notes: None.

 

Rutgers University cancelled plans to raise salaries above $47,476, and 352 salaries out of 539 (using salaries above $23,660) were below this level as of December 1st 2016.

 

The highest postdoc salary is $85,000; however the highest salary for a postdoc fellow is $51,120. We found that postdoc fellows dominated the lowest salaries; it was unclear whether these were due to errors in reporting, but the highest 108 salaries were not paid to fellows.

 

Out of a total of 539 postdocs, 364 are earning less than the new NIH NRSA minimum for 0 years training. Breaking down the salaries into various ranges, we find:

  • 7 are earning <$30,000 (5 are postdoc fellows; a further 3 salaries below $23,660 are not fellows);
  • 9 are earning >$30k-$40k (8 are postdoc fellows);
  • 41 are earning $40,800 (2 are postdoc fellows);
  • 19 are earning $41k-$42k inclusive (1 is a postdoc fellow);
  • 18 are earning >$42k-$43k (2 are postdoc fellows);
  • 27 are earning >$43k-$44k (2 are postdoc fellows);
  • 125 are earning >$44k-$45k (5 are postdoc fellows);
  • 25 are earning >$45k-$46k (2 are postdoc fellows);
  • 75 are earning >$46k-$47k (1 is a postdoc fellow);
  • 32 are earning >$47k-$48k (1 is a postdoc fellow);
  • 14 are earning >$48k-$49k (1 is a postdoc fellow);
  • 24 are earning >$49k-$50k (1 is a postdoc fellow);
  • 73 are earning >$50k-$60k (2 are postdoc fellows);
  • 32 are earning >$60k-70k;
  • 11 are earning >$70k-80k;
  • 2 are earning >$80k