Starting Salaries for Physicists/Astronomers

[Ithryndil]

I am currently considering going into either Physics or Astronomy. My goal regardless of which one I finally settle on is to get my PhD. I have done some research to try and figure out the starting salaries for either field, and they seem to be similar. However, I am finding a wide variety of starting salaries ranging from $35,000 - $65,000 a year and the potential to make around $80,000 - $100,000 depending on the job and time at the job. I am wondering if someone could give me better, more accurate starting salaries. These can be broken down based off of research jobs, university jobs and government jobs. Thank you.

 

[Norman]

AIP has the best data on Physics job market:

http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/emptrends.html

 

[Ithryndil]

Ok, so based off of what I could find about $50,000 is the starting Salary for those with their PhDs. Another question I have is: "How common is it for those who have graduated to get a job teaching? Is it difficult to get a job that doesn't require you to teach?"

Thanks.

 

[Norman]

Take a look at those statistics I linked. You may not know, but a postdoc is typically a non-teaching position. Private industry is also non-teaching.