Abstract
This survey serves as the eighth in a series of toxicology salary surveys conducted at 3-year intervals and beginning in 1988. An electronic survey instrument was distributed to 5800 individuals including members of the Society of Toxicology, American College of Toxicology, and 23 additional professional organizations. Question items inquired about gender, age, degree, years of experience, certifications held, areas of specialization, society membership, employment and income. Overall, 2057 responses were received (response rate 35.5%). The results of the 2012 survey provide insight into the job market and career path for current and future toxicologists.
This is the eighth in a series of salary surveys conducted at 3-year intervals for toxicologists that began in 1988. In addition to presenting the 2011/2012 results (most of which have already been posted on the Society of Toxicology [SOT], American College of Toxicology [ACT], and American Board of Toxicology [ABT] Web sites), herein we are providing additional data and an analysis of the trends for employment and pay in toxicology over the last 23 years.
The 2012 Triennial Toxicology Salary Survey was conducted as a joint project by the ACT and the SOT. In addition to the 2 parent organizations, 23 others (the Teratology Society, the Association of Government Toxicologists, the Safety Pharmacology Society, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, ABT, Roundtable of Toxicological Consultants, and 17 regional chapters of the SOT) supported the effort by providing access to the Survey Monkey–based instrument to their membership.
A total of 5800 survey instruments were distributed electronically in January 2012, with responses going to Survey Monkey. As of April 27, 2012, 2057 responses had been received, for a raw response rate of 35.5%. This is an improvement over the response rates for 1988 1 , 1991 2 , 1995 3 , 1998 4 , 2001 5 , 2004 6 , and 2007 (which were posted electronically but not published). Figure 1 provides a summary of the number of doctoral respondents across the quarter century of surveys.
Number of doctoral-level respondents across surveys.
The demographics of responses are summarized in Table 1 panels A through H and include respondents’ gender, age, degree, years of experience, certifications held, and areas of specialization. The survey instrument was an upgraded form of the 2007 survey developed in conjunction with the SOT Career Resource and Development Services, with questions added in an attempt to evaluate periods of unemployment. It should be noted that there continues to be a significant increase in the number of individuals reporting 6-figure incomes and in those receiving significant sums as bonuses, as is reflected particularly in Tables 2 and 3. In addition, about 25% of respondents received additional professional income outside their primary employer, as shown in Table 4. The survey methodology employed conformed to standard procedures, 7 though the response rate for this survey remains high for such endeavors.
Distribution of Respondents by Gender.
Abbreviations: ABVT, American Board of Veterinary Toxicology; ACLAM, American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine; ACVP, American College of Veterinary Pathologists; ATS, Academy of Toxicological Sciences; CEP, Certified Environmental Professional; CHES, Certified Health Education Specialist; CIH, Certified Industrial Hygienist; DABT, Diplomate, American Board of Toxicology; DABVT, Diplomate, American Board of Veterinary Toxicologists; DACVP, Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists; ERT, European Registered Toxicologist; FAACT, Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology; FACFE, Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners; FACMT, Fellow of the American College of Medical Toxicology; FCP, Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology; FIBiol, Fellow of the Institiute of Biology; FRC Path, Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists; MRC Path, Member, Royal College of Pathologists; RPh, Registered Pharmacist
Primary Job Base Salary.a
a Excludes fees, overtime, bonuses, commission, and secondary employment.
Received Bonus, Commission, Stock Gift, or Profit Sharing.
Additional Professional Income Outside Primary Employer.
Salary estimates for purposes of calculation were taken to be the midpoint of the range, for example, for the salary range of $90 000 to 99 999, a mean value of $95 000 was used in all calculations. In addition, there were a significant number of incomplete responses that required further estimation by statistical methods. The incomplete responses and the methods used to handle them were Ninety-one respondents did not indicate a gender. These results were not included in the breakdowns. Thirty-eight respondents indicated a salary >$250 000 without writing in the actual amount in the area provided. The salary used for calculation was $250 000. This probably led to a bias toward lower average values. Two hundred twenty-four (224) respondents indicated they received bonuses, commission, stock options, or profit sharing without indicating the amount. These data were excluded from consideration. A total of 1414 of the respondents (894 men; 510 women; 10 no gender designation) were full-time employed doctoral degree holders, in the United States. Table 5 presents the mean salaries (±1 standard deviation [SD]) for these individuals sorted by years of experience after receipt of their degrees, gender, and field of employment. Salaries are in thousands of US dollars per year, with necessary conversions having been made for other currencies. Figure 2 provides an across-survey analysis of doctoral salaries for respondents with 1 to 3 years of experience post-terminal degree. US doctoral annual salaries for respondents with 1 to 3 years of experience post-terminal degree. Values are in 1000s of US dollars. US Doctoral Annual Salaries.a Abbreviation: NC, not calculable. a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars. Highest mean salaries by years of experience are in boldface.
US Masters Annual Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (no. of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars.
US Bachelors’ Annual Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars.
Graduate and postdoctoral students (135)
Working part time (76)
Unemployed (30)
Retired (41)
Other (30)
There were no associate degree respondents.
Table 8 presents a summary of data on those 682 (48.2% of all employed) doctoral recipients who received bonuses in addition to salary. Tables 9 to 11 present summaries of the geographic distributions of the survey respondents by country, Canadian province, and American state, respectively. Table 12 summarizes the major professional society memberships of the respondents. Many respondents belong to more than one society. Table 13 provides a summary of the influence of certification on doctoral level salaries.
US Doctoral Bonus Amounts.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars.
Distribution of Respondents by Country.
Distribution of Employed Canadian Respondents by Province.
Distribution of Employed US Respondents by State.
2012 Society Membership of Respondents.
Board Certification and Doctoral Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000’s of US dollars.
Table 14 presents a summary of base salaries for doctoral degrees. Table 15 provides an overview of employment with the 2 largest categories, industry and academia, broken down in Tables 16 and 17, respectively. Doctoral level salaries for industrial and academic subcategories are reported in Tables 18 and 19, respectively. Table 20 summarizes academic employee status. Table 21 presents an overview of the number of years respondents have worked for their current employer. Finally, Table 22 provides a summary of unemployment and unemployment intervals during 2011.
US Doctoral Degree Primary Job Base Salary.
Description of Employment.
Industry Employment Breakdown.
Academic Employment Breakdown.
Industry Salaries for Doctoral Respondents.a
Abbreviations: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars.
Academic Salaries for Doctoral Respondents.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
a All numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in 1000s of US dollars.
Academic Status.
Years Worked for Current Employer.
2011 Unemployment.a
a Two respondents indicated unemployment during 2011 but did not provide degree information and were excluded.
Discussion and Conclusions
The 2012 survey results point to a number of different trends that deserve attention by major professional societies and add some insights into the job market, career path, and the conduct of future studies. First, although the situation continues to improve for most entry-level and early career positions, women continue to be compensated at a lower level than their male counterparts. Second, salaries as a whole have increased in the field, but the most impressive differences are not by geographic location of place of employment, but rather by type of employer. Additionally, certification continues to play a significant positive role in compensation. Finally, an evaluation of periods of unemployment revealed that 2.7% of respondents were unemployed during at least a portion of 2011, with most unemployment lasting 6 months or less.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.