The life sciences industry saw modest salary growth compared to recent years and gaps persisted for women and racial and ethnic minorities.
Boston financial district behind water/Courtesy of Getty Images
Tuesday, BioSpace published its 2023 U.S. Life Science Salary Report, an annual deep dive into compensation in the life sciences, including trends, analysis and predictions.
Using BioSpace’s own data, the survey discovered that though the overall economy has constricted, biopharma hasn’t felt the same vice grip on salary growth other industries have. Salaries continue to grow, in a year-over-year comparison, though at a slower rate than in previous years.
“We’re pleased to see salary growth even in an increasingly tough market,” said Josh Goodwin, president and CEO, BioSpace.
“Many industries are feeling the squeeze. Even modest growth must be celebrated as the industry adapts to succeed in tougher times. We applaud life sciences employers for finding ways to prioritize compensation and employee satisfaction to attract top talent.”
Like other industries, biopharma has seen its share of turbulence.
In late 2022 into early 2023, layoffs, earnings reports and decreased M&A activity underscored overall market forces.
Compared to last year, people require smaller compensation increases when considering changing jobs.
As inflation strains investments, capital acquisition and hiring, high wage growth levels this year are unlikely. Nonetheless, the report highlighted several notable findings:
- Base salaries increased by 3%
- 99% of respondents who changed employers reported a salary increase
- 27% of respondents who changed employers reported a salary increase of more than 25%
- Bonuses increased by 7% in 2022
Gaps Persist
Even as the respondents reported salary growth overall, several subsets experienced stagnation.
Intersectionality is the way gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and class “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects that influence dynamics like salary, according to the Pew Research Center.
The gender gap widened back to the level BioSpace recorded in 2021, with women earning 87% of what men earn when examining averages for full-time work.
As BioSpace has previously reported, intersectionalities also contribute to gender and racial pay disparities.
The mandates of child-rearing, caretaking and pausing one’s career at a critical time to focus on their families leave some women behind their male counterparts, BioSpace reported in “Women in the Life Sciences,” published in 2022.
This year’s data bears this out:
- Men were more likely than women to receive merit-based raises
- Men were more likely than women to receive bonuses and equity
In Sum
The Department of Labor’s Federal Jobs Report released Friday shows that the life sciences are far better off than other economic sectors.
Life sciences held firm, while most other industries suffered significant losses during the COVID-19 pandemic that entered the U.S. three years ago, nearly to the day. With the Federal Reserve aggressively raising interest rates to tame inflation, many economists had expected job gains would cool or even turn into losses by now.
“For life sciences, we expect to see employers and life sciences professionals alike continue to thrive,” Goodwin said.
