Scientists lag in pay stakes, except IT

By JILLIAN TALBOT

Pay packets for scientists in the primary product sector are dragging behind those in other sectors.

But those who have made a link to information technology are commanding significant pay increases.

Mercer Cullen Egan Dell's general manager, Wayne Peat, said the latest salary survey by the company showed agriculture, horticulture, dairy and environmental science salaries were trailing other employment disciplines by up to 50 per cent.

This contrasted with IT salaries, which leaped more than 30 per cent in the March year.

Auckland University dean of science Professor Ralph Cooney said that although salaries in the traditional science area were not that high, certain areas were "extremely well paid, here and overseas."

"The growth areas are more in cross-discipline areas than in the disciplines themselves."

One example was bio-informatics, a combination of biology and information technology, which had led to the discovery of the human genome.

However, Professor Cooney said academic salaries were getting "incrementally worse," with big differentials noted between New Zealand and the United States and Britain.

The amount of research funding in New Zealand was also lagging overseas funding levels.

In one year, Britain's research budget increased by 30 per cent.

"We do remarkably well on a shoestring but it will get increasingly difficult in the years ahead," Professor Cooney said.

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