Is $17-$18 an Hour Enough for a Chemistry Graduate with Research Experience?

[thewall12]

I'm graduating with a BSc in Chemistry and I've got a couple years academic research experience but no industrial. I'm applying for a lot of Chem I/Lab Tech jobs and I'm planning on requesting between $17 and $18 an hour. Is this too much/too little?

 

[zhermes]

Probably too much. Depends on how good you are, where you are applying, what you'll be doing, where the area is, the type of company, the type of competition... etc etc etc.

 

[TMFKAN64]

I have no actual facts, but I really hope that $34-36K per year isn't considered too much.

 

[daveyrocket]

Don't mention anything about salary until they give you an offer with a number. If they ask how much you want, say "negotiable" or "I would consider any serious offer that you make." Also, go to a site like glassdoor.com or salary.com and look at what salaries the market offers for those types of position. For a chemist I position, sounds like what you're asking might be at the lower end of the range. But as zhermes said, there are a lot of factors to consider.

 

[elfboy]

As quoted by Dr. Evil.. A million dollars

 

[comp_math]

and remember, you also need to consider taxes.