I talked to an agency about finding my first job in industry and with no experience she said even with a PhD I could be paid £11-12K.
I was shocked and feel quite depressed now :-(
I'm looking at pharma/healthcare in the North of England and have a PhD in Biochemistry. To me starting graduate salaries would be £18-20k. A postdoc would be at least this. Anyone any experience/views on this?

If they said 11-18K they are lying. take your business elsewhere. You should look for anything in the region of 10-25k

Can you go for an industrial postdoc? I know they are available in chemistry no idea about biochem. A few of the large pharmaceutical companies offer them. They start on around 28k.

They said £12k as employers don't take academic experience as job experience...even from postdocs.

They are saying no experience=low salary

That sounds like rubbish. Where I used to work before coming back to uni (they paid a pittance) starting salary for a postdoc was 24K (which was considered poo 4 years ago).

However you do get paid a lot more down south as this is where all the big companies are.

That is ridiculous.. £11-12k a year is something that you would look to get without going to uni.. Even as a new graduate you would expect more than that.. The person who told that is taking the p*ss.. Maybe s/he doesn't know what a PhD actually is or maybe s/he thought you said HND hehe.

Biological sciences and biotechnology are advancing dramatically and so there is a demand for postgrads who are specialised in new technologies and able to come up with research ideas.. and they are willing to pay for the knowledge that a phd graduate has.. I'm a molecular microbiologist and most of the jobs that i have seen in my sort of area have a starting salary of around £27k-32k

Have you used any specialist recruitment agencies?

Welcome to the real world people... .. I don't mean to be patronising, honest! However does having a PhD improve your salary unless your job requires a PhD? erm... nope. It makes no difference whatsoever.. the only good thing it does is sometimes give you an 'edge' on others.. and even then, it's not gauranteed.

My boyfriend needed his PhD for his job.. he started on 30K.. I didn't and applied for grad jobs with others who had just BScs... we all started on the same - £25K.. however they were all 21,22 and I was 25 when I started work...

I knew this was going to be the case so it didn't worry me too much - I always had personal reasons for doing my PhD and am very glad I did one.. however others seem to think it's some magical thing which will give you higher salaries or a better chance of getting a job.. sadly dudes.. that's not always the case!

Hi PC_Geek: not to sound like I'm getting on your case but I disagree with your point of view. Most people do a PhD because they want to learn and (coincindently) improve their career prospects. To whit, they expect a higher than average salary comensurate with the additional time spent learning new techniques and developing transferable skills. Your boyfriend is a prime example. The fact that someone equates a BSc in the same capacity as PhD in terms of employability, I think, is wrong. Having worked in industry for a number of years (I admit it was science based) if I was offered the same salary as a new starter having finished a PhD and, as such, expected to deal with additional rresponsibilities associated therewith, I would walk out the door laughing.
Of course, I may be wrong

Unfortunately, with a recession right round the corner you might very well find you are .

I got a second opinion from someone that deals with Bioscience companies in my region and she confirms that this was "sadly" an accurate salary.
I'm definately reconsidering my options as salary is important to me along with geographical location.

*expletive*

I had been wondering how the recession will affect me, and I have finally realised. In a year and a half there is now way humanities departments are going to have the extra cash to hire on staff....

sigh

Hey Hypothesis - Hrm.. I applied for a 'graduate' job, thus both BSc and PhD holders are 'graduates'... he applied for a programming job in a Semi Conductor Fab company which requires PhD holders due to the specialist nature of things.

Maybe I should have been more explicit in what I meant.. if you're looking for a 'graduate job' .. most grad jobs are only looking for a BSc or equivalent.. therefore if you're expecting special treatment due to getting a PhD.. forget it.

On the other hand, if the job advert *specifically* mentions 'PhD'.. then great - however when job hunting I found employers on the whole didn't care what you graduated from or the level of degree as long as it was 2:1 at Bachelors level or above..

Well if a graduate job wants BSc 2.1 or above, the company will normally not bother offering more money to a PhD when they can have a BSc for the amount they want to offer(doing exactly the same job).

My experience is from the pharmaceutical industry. Normally, to be a "senior" scientist, you need a PhD (or about 4+ years experience after first degree).

cc, your main problem is location. Obviously I understand that you may not want to or can not move but you could easily hit 25k with a senior scientist job down south where all the big pharma companies are. I sympathise, being told you will get such a low wage but that is one of the issues with "up north".

I don't think it's about going into a PhD assuming that you automatically get a pay rise. The job I'm after is very specialised and I need a PhD to do it. Obviously the salary I will be offered will reflect on the fact that I have specific skills and not just any scientist can walk into that job.