A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn

Re:A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn by noelwelsh on Friday January 09, 2015 @03:00PM (#8864156)

These figures might be correct for the US, but the UK is much better about things. As a PhD student (a teaching assistance) I received a tax-free income that was equivalent to earning about £20K a year, which is about USD30K. I think post-docs are in the range £25-35K. We also don't have the brutal tenure system.

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Re:A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn by Iepai2eg on Friday January 09, 2015 @07:40PM (#8865348)

I wish. Most EPSRC-funded PhD student are paid the minimum EPSRC rate [1], currently £13,863 (or USD 20,965).

[1] http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/skills/students/help/minimumpay/

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Re:A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn by aaren on Saturday January 10, 2015 @09:43AM (#8866836)

That £13k is a tax-free stipend. You don't have to pay income tax and some other things (e.g. an all student house pays no council tax). When you work out the equivalent taxed income that would reduce to that stipend, it approaches £20k.

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Re:A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn by jschwartzi on Saturday January 10, 2015 @08:47AM (#8866746)

I think that's about what I would have made unloading shipping containers by hand for a year.

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