The median age of all chemist re spondents this year was 44, the same as last year. Those in industry were younger, with a median of 42, as were women, with a median of 39. Also with a median age of 39 were bachelor's degree chemists and those working for small organizations with 50 to 99 employees. Salaries Interpretation of increases in chemists' salaries calculated by comparing medians from surveys using different samples and taken one year apart should always be approached with caution. Hence any perturbation in either of the medians can significantly change the size of the apparent increase.
Results can be quite erratic for subgroups of the chemist population.
A sample of these variations is the salary increases this year for B.S. chemists obtained by subtracting corresponding medians from last year's survey from the medians for this year's survey. However, the generally strong overall upward trend in the apparent salary gains obtained by comparing all 1999 and 1998 survey data leaves no reason to doubt that the salaries of working chemists as a group have moved up substantially during the past year. One piece of independent supporting evidence is the recent very sharp increase in the starting salaries of new chemistry graduates at all degree levels. It would not seem unreasonable to assume that such a boost at the entry level could well have a ripple effect up through the community of working chemists. Ph.D.s at small firms earn a lot less More confirmation of the upward trend in chemists' salaries comes from answers to the survey question that asks individual respondents for their salary as of March 1 of both the current year and the previous year.