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A snapshot of how much paint R&D staffers earn and what's on their minds as they spend countless hours in the lab.
August 10, 2005
By: Kerry Pianoforte
Editor, Coatings World
Welcome to the first Coatings World R&D Salary Survey. We polled a portion of our readers-research and development personnel involved in paint and coatings formulation-to determine their attitudes toward their jobs, their education level, their salaries and what their biggest concerns are at work. We believe this survey provides a quick snapshot of the paint and coatings industry from the men and women in the trenches-those who provide the marketplace with key research that drives new technologies and delivers new products. Our respondents came from coatings formulators, raw material suppliers and academia. All told, 75% of the respondents came from paint and coatings manufacturers, 20% from suppliers to the industry and the remining five percent from “other,” which includes academia. Respondents included R&D directors (26%), lab/technical/R&D managers (29%), senior chemists (27%), chemists (13%), technician/lab support (one percent) and other (four percent). Not surprisingly, the vast majority of our respondents were male (89%), with 11% being female. The median age of our respondents was 48. The oldest respondent was 81; the youngest was just 22. As for experience, the median number of years experience in the industry was 22, and the number of years at their current position was six. Regarding education, 25% of the respondents have Masters degrees, 48% obtained Bachelors degrees; 16% have Doctorate level education and 11% checked off “other.” Most of the respondents were finished with their formal education, as 67% said they were “very unlikely” or “unlikely” to pursue an additional degree. The majority of respondents (73%) came from the U.S./NAFTA region. Eleven percent came from Europe, 11% from Asia-Pacific, three percent from South/Latin America and one percent came from Middle/East/Africa. One percent did not answer this question. There was one anomaly in our results: the median compensation for R&D directors was less than that of lab managers when all respondents were included. When results are tabulated with only U.S. respondents, R&D directors’ median compensation was higher. Our suspicions are that differences in ” job titles” between U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific may be the reason. On the following pages are the results of our survey. A special thanks to all who participated. We’re looking forward to including more of you in our results next year.
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