The levels of most postdoc salaries at US biomedical research institutions are set by the National Institutes of Health. But private philanthropies, which consistently claim such stipends are insufficient, have worked to boost these wages by sponsoring studies on salaries and by offering their own grants with higher levels of support.

The Problem: The NIH’s budget doubled over the past few years, and the NSF is currently working on a budget doubling of its own. Despite this vast influx of new federal funding, approval rates for grant proposals at the NIH have plummeted, and similar things are happening at NSF. The Challenge: If you were in charge, tell us what would you do differently. Join a public discussion.

Results of Sigma Xi's survey of 7600 postdocs at 46 US institutions. Very interesting discussion of salaries, training, and administrative oversight.

Some institutions use NRSA stipend levels as the benchmark against which they set postdoc salaries. Here are the numbers for 2006.

Graduate-student pay levels mean tight budgets and inventive cost-cutting, but is the five-year pay freeze worth it? Kendall Powell calculates the bottom line.