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WuXi buyout deal raises questions on scientists' pay scale
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The average scientist on WuXi PharmaTech's Chinese payroll earns about $30,000 a year, roughly equivalent to 10 percent of what it costs to emply an American researcher with the same qualifications. Numbers like that make analysts salivate at the earnings potential of the publicly traded company, which has been renting out scientists to drug developers anxious to operate on a lean and mean R&D budget. WuXi recently moved to acquire the U.S. research and testing firm AppTec Laboratory Services, which may put some strain on the company's operating plan. I'd be willing to bet that scientists at AppTec--or anywhere else in the developed world, for that matter--aren't salivating over WuXi's pay scale.
- read the report in the Wall Street Journal
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Comments
By Anonymous | Posted 3:18pm | January 8, 2008
Unfortunately Fierce repeated the same error that the Wall Street Journal committed. The WSJ article (and Fierce's piece) compares the cost of a fully-burdened FTE in the US (about $250-300K) with the base salary of a FTE in China, but makes it sound like base salaries in China are being compared with base salaries in the US. Do you really believe the average scientist in the US earns $300K/year?
From what I've seen, the cost of a fully burdened research FTE in China is about $100K, compared with $300 K in the US. The average salary for a scientist in China is about $30K, while the equivalent in the US is about $90K. The correct difference is about 3X, not 10X.
By Tim MacLachlan | Posted 4:20pm | January 8, 2008
Your article erroneously states that A chinese researchers EARNINGS of $30,000 are 10% of an American researcher. I challenge you to find a seasoned American researcher, academic or industry, that makes more than $100K. The WSJ article stated that the researchers COST $30K... even that figure is debatable - the only way an American researcher would cost $300K a year is due to supplies, and Chinese researchers need to buy the same supplies.
By Anonymous | Posted 4:28pm | January 8, 2008
I find it hard to believe that at $30,000/year for an "average scientist" salary is 10% of US standards, meaning that an "average scientist" at a medical testing lab makes $300,000/year?!! For a testing laboratory, typically much of the work can be done by lower-end skilled labor, so I would think that the Chinese salaries may be closer to half to a third when you consider health and other benefits. I don't think there is that much of a salary diparity as appears.
By Anonymous | Posted 12:32pm | January 9, 2008
$30k is 10% of the average US scientist salary? I had no idea scientists get paid so well. Where do I sign up?
By maureen | Posted 1:09pm | September 9, 2008
The $300k figure is what the WSJ claims it costs to employ a scientist in the U.S. - not necessairly what the employee makes. The misstatement has been corrected.
By Anonymous | Posted 9:46am | September 30, 2008
I agree with all the comments above. No US scientist make over $100k. By the way, what is the value of the lost intellectual property when using a $30k scientist from China?
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