Can a scientist make a steady income? If so how much? What exactly do they do?

Question

Neuroscientist

Answer 1

Yes, they can certainly make a steady income.  The exact amount depends on how high a degree you have and where you work.  A PhD with a corporation, for example, will make more than a PhD that runs an academic lab at a university.  Both of them will likely make more than someone with a MS or BS.

I currently work for a biotech company.  I handle most of the tests we do and keep the lab in working order.  It's a standard 9-5 job with decent pay.  When I worked for an academic lab (at a hospital), the pay was significantly lower and the hours longer, but it was still a steady paycheck.

It's just a rough guess, but if you worked for an academic neuroscience lab, you'd probably make ~30k with a BS or ~45k with a MS (PhD depends on whether or not you run the lab, or if you're a post doc or researcher).  In biotech, you'd probably make ~40-45k with a BS and maybe 50-55k with a MS.  These are just starting salaries, and wild guesses at that.  What with the impending financial crash and rising anti-science sentiment in both the public and government (if you're in the US), these numbers could vary wildly.

In any case, though, being a scientist usually means working for some sort of organization, which in turn, means a steady paycheck.  It's a very workable career, but not really one that you want to go down solely for the money.