[fg6hr]

That's some really complex mess. How much do these chemists get paid?

[mardifoufs]

In research? Usually not much and thats if you can even manage to find a job. But Chemical engineers are usually well paid and can easily get a job out of college. Though maybe that is changing since the oil industry is usually a big part of the job market. And with most of the energy sector currently on the brink of collapse...

[fg6hr]

I don't get it. The Big Pharma makes some serious money and it needs qualified chemists to make new drugs. The complexity of making these drugs is so high that there should only few chemists good enough for the job.

[barkingcat]

If they don't have grants, $0. If they work in a lab for someone who has a grant, $0, but with credit on the papers (that's why there's 35 authors on the paper, 1 person got paid, the rest got name credit in the hopes that they get noticed by a commercial company wanting to monetize this process, so in the future they get their own gig). If they work in a commercial lab, maybe they make a little.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

So... Why does anyone do it? We're talking about throwing years of your life at this work; how on earth is it pulling people in if it can't pay bills?

[Metacelsus]

Usually grad students are paid. Not much (~$35000/yr) but they do get paid.

[Josh_Bloom]

In industry organic chemists earn about 7 figures. Unfortunately, the first one or two are zero