Life Sciences Research Talent Salary Trends

Salaries for life sciences researchers remain well above most professions’ average and are growing faster.

Average salaries in most major U.S. markets for biochemists, biomedical engineers, biophysicists and chemists do not strongly fluctuate, regardless of cost of living differences (Figure 14). It is notable that average salaries exceed the average cost of living by a much wider margin in Southern and Midwestern markets than in major coastal markets (Figure 15). For example, the salary of a biochemist in St. Louis may be more than one might expect considering the lower cost of living.

Figure 14: 2021 Average Annual Salaries for Select Life Sciences Research Occupations ($)

Source: Lightcast, CBRE Research, Q2 2023.

Figure 15: 2021 Average Annual Salaries for Biochemists & Local Cost of Living

Source: Lightcast, CBRE Research, Q2 2023.

The U.S. life sciences labor market is tight, with inflation influencing continued salary and wage growth. The U.S. Employment Cost Index (ECI) for private industry workers reflects rising wage pressures over the past several years, but particularly rapid growth in 2020 and 2021 (Figure 16). It also shows that the annual change in median life sciences researcher salaries in the nation’s top clusters is more volatile but higher than that of other private industry workers. While the life sciences salary dataset lags the national ECI by a year, the two generally trend similarly.

Figure 16: Growth of Life Sciences Researcher Earnings vs. Employment Costs for All Private Industry Workers

Source: Lighcast, CBRE Research, Q2 2023.