BioSpace Publishes 2021 U.S. Life Sciences Salary Report, Examines Salary Growth Despite Challenges
As BioSpace releases its third annual 2021 U.S. Life Sciences Salary Report, there are hopeful surprises and unsettling truths. Here’s a preview of some of the most notable metrics.
The industry's salary growth is accelerating. Overall, the average annual salary increase equated to 5% for the industry which is up from 4.4% in 2020.
While benefiting from the respect and revenue elicited by the COVID-19 vaccines, the industry has not completely escaped the pandemic’s economic drawbacks. Of those respondents who indicated they saw a decrease in their 2021 salary, the average salary decrease was 11%. Salary increases were down 5 percentage points from 2020, while those receiving bonuses declined by 10.6 percentage points.
Of those reporting a pay decrease, 35% stated that the pandemic was to blame. Other factors included mandated company pay cuts, which were up 10 percentage points from 2020, while 30% changed employers. Notably, respondents also reported reluctance to seek out new opportunities.
“I think people are a bit hesitant right now to make a move. There are so many other changes that people are dealing with – family and other aspects of this pandemic – that a change as big as an employment change is a barrier at the moment,” Sutro Biopharma Chief People and Communications Officer, Linda Fitzpatrick told BioSpace in a previous interview.
But it isn’t surprising that an industry that has spent the past 16 months saving the world is experiencing a rapid recovery. Life sciences companies are ramping up recruitment and new jobs are popping up every day. Case-in-point: Moderna has committed to hiring 155 full-time employees at its Norwood, MA manufacturing site in 2021.
Receding Gender Gap
BioSpace is ecstatic to report progress with the gender pay gap. As transparency, awareness and momentum for equal representation in management and boards begin to take hold in the industry, pay equity appears to be following. The chasm between men’s and women’s salaries is shrinking, narrowing from 19.3% in 2020 to 13% this year.
Overall, men are earning an average base pay of $133,374 compared to $118,056 for women, reflecting a 7.8% increase for women since the 2020 survey. At bonus time, the gap has shrunk by a meaningful 10 percentage points, with men now bringing home just under $6,000 more than women. This is in comparison to a discrepancy of nearly $10,000 in 2020.
Persistent Racial Pay Gap
With momentum to spare, the industry must now turn its attention to addressing a racial pay gap. This year, 56% of survey respondents identified as white/non-Hispanic and 28% as Asian, with Black and Hispanic employees each accounting for 7%.
These numbers alone definitively illustrate underrepresentation of particularly African Americans and Hispanics within the life sciences. They also bear a striking similarity – four years later – to a 2017 survey conducted by Nature Biotechnology and BIO illustrating the underrepresentation of these segments in the biotech industry. While African Americans made up 13.3% of the overall U.S. population, they were only represented in biotech to the tune of 6.9%. This gap was even more glaring when it came to Hispanics, who constituted 17.8% of the overall population and were the least represented in the biotech workforce.
A large gap in average salary between white and Black professionals speaks to a similar inequality. The gap is even more conspicuous when it comes to bonuses, where white professionals took home an average of $30,202 compared to $25,263 for Hispanics and only $20,432 for those identifying as Black.
Where it Pays to Work
North Carolina has recently attracted power players like Biogen, Gilead Sciences, and FujiFilm and respondents in North Carolina reported an average salary increase of 5.2%, higher than the overall industry average of 5%. The area continues to increase the number of job opportunities.
“The area has been a strong advanced biomanufacturing region for decades, drawing biopharma companies with a potent cocktail of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and arguably the best prepared concentration of biomanufacturing workforce in the U.S.,” said Travis McCready, Executive Director, US Life Sciences Markets at JLL.
Nicknamed “the third coast” biotech hub, the Lone Star Bio region of Texas has been steadily growing since 2012. Though geography nerds might argue with the moniker, it is difficult to argue with the 5.9% average salary increase reported by survey respondents. The life sciences community is approximately 100,000 strong, and with one of the lowest tax burdens in the country, Texas is home to innovative biotechs like ReCode Therapeutics, behemoths like Mckesson, and of course the Texas Medical Center.
This is just a glimpse into the comprehensive data to be found in the BioSpace 2021 Life Sciences Salary Report. The full document drills down into the top four disciplines, stats by gender and race, more Hotbed regions, and roles and titles.
Get the full BioSpace 2021 Life Sciences Salary Report here.