I have received a few requests for salary information lately and I haven't
done a survey since 2001. I thought the AMMRL membership might like to see
a letter I wrote recently for a colleague. The data is at
http://labmanagers.com
As you know, since the Association of Managers in Magnetic Resonance
Laboratories was formed in 1992, I have been on its Steering Committee and
have had sole responsibility for collecting salary data from NMR managers
periodically and publishing the results. The AMMRL data match well with
other salary survey data from the American Chemical Society, the Society
for Applied Spectroscopy, and other sources.
I also answer requests for salary recommendations that come to me from
departments trying to persuade their HR units to offer a competitive salary
to a new hire as well as from individuals like yourself who are trying to
alert their management that their current compensation is inadequate. Hence
this letter.
The last survey I performed was in 2001 and resulted in the average salary
being $59,259 with one standard deviation of $14,993. Measuring
"experience" the same way ACS does for non-tenured academics, years since
the baccalaureate degree, AMMRL results are 24 +/- 9 years average.
In between surveys, I have found that a quite reliable method is to
multiply the last available salary average by 1.03n where n is the number
of years elapsed since the previous survey. Doing that, we arrive at
$64,754 for this year.
If this letter were directed to HR personnel at (institution), I would
point out that (a) you hold the Ph.D. in a relevant field, (b) you have
post-doctoral training in NMR, (c) you have years of relevant experience
corresponding roughly with the average AMMRL experience, and (d) that
(institution) is in a high cost of living area. For a new hire, I would
recommend a starting salary offer of at least $70,000.
Sincerely
William C. Stevens, Ph.D. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Director Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4405
618-453-6498 voice
618-453-6408 fax wstevens_at_siu.edu
http://opie.nmr.siu.edu
Received on Wed Mar 31 2004 - 12:02:19 MST