NIH advisory group recommends $14,000 boost in postdoc pay

The minimum starting salaries of U.S. biomedical postdocs should increase to $70,000, up from the current minimum of $56,484, concludes a report released today by an advisory group to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). “We feel that this is crucial to … protect the U.S. biomedical competitiveness,” said co-chair Shelley Berger, an epigenetics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, during the presentation unveiling the report’s recommendations. If enacted, such a salary boost could impact researchers well beyond the biomedical research community, as many academic institutions across the country set their postdoc salary levels based on NIH’s. An NIH spokesperson declined to answer questions about the feasibility of the recommendations and a timeline for their implementation, noting, “We will announce when a decision has been made on next steps.” The spokesperson added that NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli appreciated the group’s work and would carefully review the report with her leadership team. The 21-member working group, which was formed in November 2022 to provide “bold” recommendations to the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) following reports that principal investigators (PIs) were struggling to fill vacant postdoc positions , also recommended a 5-year cap on the length of postdoc positions, an expansion of health care, retirement, and child care benefits, increased support for international postdocs, a...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research