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: North Carolina State University.

 

Cost for FOIA Request: $0

Additional notes: Names and departments also listed for each salary.

 

North Carolina State had a number of postdoc salaries close to what was expected. Some titles seemed to suggest particular administration or use of titles; for example salaries at exactly $27,000 were all Post Doc Interns, and at $33,000 were all Post Doc Residents. Generally Post Doc Fellows tended to be at lower salaries, and Post Doc Research Scholars at higher; but there were examples of both at either end of the salary range.

 

184 of 431 salaries (using those above $23,660) were below the proposed FLSA minimum of $47,476. 122 salaries were at exactly $47,476, or 28% of all salaries.

 

The postdoc salary policy has been updated here: “Postdoctoral scholars must be, at a minimum, compensated at a rate that is the higher of the following: 1) at least 60% of the minimum starting academic year’s salary for an assistant professor in the appropriate discipline as published in the University’s approved faculty salary ranges established by Human Resources; or 2) at $47,000.”