Abstract
This survey serves as the ninth in a series of toxicology salary surveys conducted at 3-year intervals and beginning in 1988. An electronic survey instrument was distributed to 5919 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, 1293 responses were received (response rate 21.8%). The results of the 2014 survey provide insight into the job market and career path for current and future toxicologists.
This is the ninth in a series of salary surveys conducted at 3-year intervals for toxicologists that began in 1988. Previous salary surveys were conducted in 1988, 1 1991, 2 1995, 3 1998, 4 2001, 5 2004, 6 2007 (which were posted electronically but not published), and 2012. 7 In addition to presenting the 2014 results, here, we are providing additional data and an analysis of the trends for employment and pay in toxicology over the last 26 years.
The 2014 Triennial Toxicology Salary Survey was conducted as a joint project by the American College of Toxicology (ACT) and the Society of Toxicology (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, American Board of Toxicology (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 5,919 survey instruments were distributed electronically on January 23, 2014, with responses going to Survey Monkey. As of March 4, 2014, 1,293 responses had been received, for a raw response rate of 21.8%. This is a decrease in the response rate when compared to previous toxicology salary surveys. 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 Tables 1 to 8 and include respondents’ gender, age, degree, years of experience, certifications held, and areas of specialization. The survey instrument was similar to the form of the 2012 survey, developed in conjunction with the SOT Career Resource and Development services, which included questions evaluating 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 9 and 10. In addition, about 24% of respondents received additional professional income outside their primary employer, as shown in Table 11. The survey methodology used conformed to standard procedures 8 , although the response rate for this survey remains high for such endeavors.
Distribution of Respondents by Gender.
Distribution of Respondents by Age.
Highest Degree Obtained.
Years Since Completion of Highest Degree.
Field of Highest Degree.
Years of Direct Experience in Toxicology.
Certifications Held.
Current Area of Specialization.
Primary Job Base Salary.a
aExcludes 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 US$90,000 to US$99,999, a mean value of US$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 are as follows: Ninety-seven respondents did not indicate a gender. These results were not included in the breakdowns. Twenty-seven respondents indicated a salary >US$250,000 without writing the actual amount in the area provided. The salary used for calculation was US$250,000. This probably led to a bias toward lower average values. One hundred thirty-one respondents indicated they received bonuses, commission, stock options, or profit sharing without indicating the amount. These data were excluded from consideration.
A total of 864 of the respondents (527 men and 327 women; 10 no gender designation) were full-time employed holders of doctoral degrees in the United States. Table 12 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 postterminal degree.
US Doctoral Annual Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars. Highest mean salaries by years of experience are bolded.
US doctoral annual salaries for respondents with 1 to 3 years of experience postterminal degree. Values are in thousands of US dollars.
The mean salaries (±1 SD) for the 81 master’s level respondents from the United States are presented in Table 13. Likewise, the results from the 40 bachelor’s level respondents are presented in Table 14. The remaining respondents were not employed full time during the reporting period and are characterized as follows:
US Masters’ Annual Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
US Bachelors’ Annual Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
graduate and postdoctoral students (10),
working part-time (42),
retired (41), and
other (9)
There were no associate degree respondents.
Table 15 presents a summary of data on those 527 (61.0% of all employed) doctoral recipients who received bonuses in addition to salary. Tables 16 to 18 present summaries of the geographic distributions of the survey respondents by country, Canadian province, and American state, respectively. Table 19 summarizes the major professional society memberships of the respondents. Many respondents belong to more than one society. Table 20 provides a summary of the influence of certification on doctoral-level salaries.
US Doctoral Bonus Amounts.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
Distribution of Respondents by Country.
Distribution of Employed Canadian Respondents by Province.
Distribution of Employed US Respondents by State.
2014 Society Membership of Respondents.
Abbreviations: AACR, American Association for Cancer Research; ACS, American Chemical Society; ACT, American College of Toxicology; ASPET, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; EMS, Environmental Mutagen Society; ISSX, International Society for Study of Xenobiotics; SPS, Safety Pharmacology Society; SRA, Society for Risk Analysis; SOT, Society of Toxicology; SETAC, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry; STP, Society of Toxicologic Pathologists.
Board Certification and Doctoral Salaries.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
Table 21 presents a summary of base salaries for doctoral degrees. Table 22 provides an overview of employment with the 2 largest categories, industry and academia, broken down into Tables 23 and 24, respectively. Doctoral-level salaries for industrial and academic subcategories are reported in Tables 25 and 26, respectively. Table 27 summarizes academic employee status. Table 28 presents an overview of the number of years respondents have worked for their current employer. Finally, Table 29 provides a summary of unemployment and unemployment intervals during 2014.
US Doctoral Degree Primary Job Base Salary.
Description of Employment.
Industry Employment Breakdown.
Academic Employment Breakdown.
Industry Salaries for Doctoral Respondents.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
Academic Salaries for Doctoral Respondents.a
Abbreviation: NC, not calculable.
aAll numbers are mean ± standard deviation (number of respondents); values in thousands of US dollars.
Academic Status.
Years Worked for Current Employer.
2014 Unemployment.a
aTwo respondents indicated unemployment during 2014 but did not provide degree information and were excluded.
Discussion and Conclusions
The 2014 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. Secondly, 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 2.0% of respondents were unemployed during at least a portion of 2014, with most unemployment lasting 6 months or less and no unemployment lasting longer than 9 months.
Footnotes
Author Contributions
Shayne Cox Gad and Dexter Wayne Sullivan Jr, contributed to conception and design; contributed to acquisition, analysis, and interpretation; drafted the manuscript; critically revised the manuscript; and gave final approval and agree to be accountable for all aspects of work ensuring integrity and accuracy.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.