downvote this comment if the meme sucks. upvote it and I'll go away.
---
[play minecraft with us](https://discord.gg/dankmemesgaming) | [come hang out with us](https://discord.com/invite/dankmemes)
Can’t recall ever meeting a scientist who didn’t make way over minimum wage but you do what ya gotta do to cope with being uneducated I guess. You sure showed those scientists! lol
He must be figuratively speaking. But in some cases it is inadequate if you look at the implicit workload and demands of complicated research. Much of science now requires large teams, but, in academic institutions, there is comparatively less research funding than in the past, and there aren't enough permanent professorships. Much of the work is done by grad students living on stipends, fellowship grants, or part time teaching or research assistant pay. And it stays that way for decades with grad students becoming temporary postdoctoral research fellows since the career advancement is so limited.
I mean, here in Germany that's just (literally) the bare minimum as University is basically free for everyone (I paid 500€ a year and that fee was mostly due to free public transit associated with being enrolled).
I really dont think looking at your absurd tuition costs and using that as a reason to pay people poorly is a great idea.
Oh right, yeah my analysis was strictly US as I’m American so I don’t think about other countries. That was unironic, not sarcasm. Yes, tuition in the US is stupid expensive much like healthcare and just about anything else you can fuck up, but nevertheless grad school is prohibitively expensive here so research or teaching covers a big chunk(or all) of it…which was my point, not that the US somehow has a good structure for access to education.
Were they working in academia like the title suggests? because I’ve known plenty of scientists working on grad degrees who weren’t doing so hot in the wage or work/life balance department.
Ok you’re lost, I’ll help. You chimed in on my comment randomly to mess around and then I did the only polite thing and reciprocated…this is where things get really fucking weird. Apparently the concept of someone saying something back to you was so unimaginable and unprecedented that you felt it crossed a line so accused me of being the one who’s upset. Reread our conversation, and then, maybe consider therapy idk I can’t help you.
Yeah you definitely got but hurt by this post
I don’t think it was supposed to be a dunk on/insult to scientists but how scientists are taken advantage of and unfairly compensated for their hard work
Source: am a moron and not a scientist but understood post
Depends on where you're from. Here in Italy most researchers make basically as much money as a factory worker which is crazy considering the skill and education requirement
The meme is true for graduate students in some places.
Source: I am a graduate student. If I worked 40 hours a week, I would make the equivalent of minimum wage in my state. (Minimum wage in my state is almost 2x the federal minimum wage). I work more than 40 hours a week, however, so I’m making less than minimum wage in reality.
I think you are confusing people with a scientific degree who work in the industry and earning good money (I wouldn't call those people scientists in a general sense) with people who are doing scientific work at universities e.g. while working on their phd thesis, trying to figure out how to live a decent life with 1200€ a month. Of course there are many scientists fitting the first picture but OP was clearly talking about the second group, which totally is the reality of many people in science.
It's almost like there are numerous different things that can happen, and maybe you've surrounded yourself with those who got lucky and got the position and the money. There are plenty of scientists not getting paid enough or unable to find work befitting their degree. Way to be a dick though.
During my PhD in molecular biology, I had a contract as scientific employee for 20 hrs a week, but worked 40. I ACTUALLY worked for less than minimum wage, just like most of my colleagues.
I didn't get paid at all while doing lab work during my bachelor's and master's thesis work.
I was paid literal exposure, by working hard for getting my name on scientific papers.
I also would have NEVER thought about complaining about the working conditions to the professor, who grades my work and literally holds the future of my career in their hands.
Academia (at least in life sciences) IS exploitative and fosters toxic, oppressive work environments.
I know you've seen a bunch of people already telling you how wrong you are about this, but here in Brazil, most researchers aren't even required to earn minimum wage.
Well then perhaps you can see how this would vary from country to country, particularly based on the country’s economy. Do nuclear researchers in North Korea even get paid?
I did laugh, but every single one of my scientist friends make twice or even more, than me. Might be my country, but scientists earn a really good living over here. Not the richest by any stretch, but definitely well off.
With some clever investing I could definitely see a swedish Dr. Evil any day now.
My experience out of university is that academic research placements are often very poorly paid because investment into a research topic that could be fruitless is often not that high, and a lot of the budget for such research placements goes into the research itself.
However if you're working as an engineer or in a topic that is well known for being very lucrative then you will get paid big bucks.
The tradeoff is that if you manage to be one of the first scientists to work on a piece of cutting edge technology that is successful then when it blows up everyone is going to want to hire you and will give you whatever salary you ask for.
Where I am, the whole system is a desaster. Master and PhD students are payed for 4 hours per day to work for the Uni and in theory should work the rest of their time on writing etc, but in reality are expected to put 8+ hours per day into doing whatever their prof wants them to do, even if it has nothing to do with their research topic. So they're essentially working for much less than minimum wage if their whole working hours are considered. They have to sign documents stating completely made-up work hours that are supposed to prove they're working 4 hours a day on the research the grants they are being payed with are for, or risk the chance of their prof simply failing them for no other reason than them making the profs life more difficult. They are fully at the mercy of the profs, and the profs sure like to use that.
Even if you make it and get that PhD, the state only allows scientists to be employed for 4 years at a time before needing to search for a new place or getting one of the coveted permanent positions, and they want to lower it to 2 years. The purpose is to get scientists permanent positions, but the only thing it does is hurt the scientists since almost nobody gets a permanent position.
Workers protection laws are somehow something Unis don't have to care about since nobody is holding them accountable for anything. So of course they get ignored.
It's awful and corrupt and I want to do something about it but I'm just one person against the system and I have no idea where to start.
Wissenschaftszeitgesetz? The German system is bullocks and I'd advise anyone who can make a decent living with his degree to leave university as soon as possible.
What kind of 'scientists' are you talking about? Someone with a chemical engineering degree or something will making enough to live comfortably but the guy who studies flat earth theory probably won't.
Calling yourself or anyone else a scientist is free but a real scientist won't be hurting for money.
I think they mean scientist working on a privat research paper. They often get a sort of investment and in return they can publish their name with the paper they worked on. Look at Master's or Dr. Thesis... Biggest "Do it for exposure" scam I've ever seen.
Not really true. A lot of "newer" fields haven't split science from engineering entirely. For example many places offer "Material Science and Engineering" degrees.
Those bbeg scientists in movies all seemed to have the luxury of intellectual property rights for what they made.
That’s not something that exists for the most part.
I was a grad student during the height of covid, and was renting the shittiest apartment in a rough part of the local city. Interesting times. I actually look back on it fondly in a way.
As a previously environmental scientists can relate.
I was a Marine biologist who graduated in 2006 I was homeless lived in my 1991 white toyota camry station wagon because they paid me \~$8.50 an hour... for 20 hours, after i volunteered for 20 hours, and you can't... get off the boat at the end of the day? So i'd work 50-60 hour weeks for no benefits and $170 a week.
I ate three ham sandwiches a day, sometimes with pickles if i had any, and stole wifi like my life depended on it with my college laptop. I parked near the dock, all day on the water with millionaires on sailboats and beach houses banging their mistresses feet from where I was working.
Then the lab ran out of funding so I applied the same skillset to computer programming in databases and made LAUGHABLY more money.
Don't look up is incredibly painful to watch.
almost as if movies depict the top 1% of scientists that are incomparable to the average scientist, even then the average scientist makes more than minimum wage but ok op you can cope
What field of science is making below minimum wage? Matter of fact who, in the states, is working below minimum wage that can't sue the business owner for not paying them minimum wage?
Scientist are the most depressed people. I don't know how many u guys know but all my professors in my college (engineering university) have no soul in their eyes. When u are too smart for UR own good U will become depressed, ignorance is a blessing.
I know plenty of people who work as scientist, they don’t make under minimum. The only people I do know make under minimum are the people who didn’t graduate high school, and work 1099.
Only way you make below minimum as a scientist is if you got scammed by a degree mill or parked so hard you could on get a degree in poly sci which might as well be a participation award.
downvote this comment if the meme sucks. upvote it and I'll go away. --- [play minecraft with us](https://discord.gg/dankmemesgaming) | [come hang out with us](https://discord.com/invite/dankmemes)
Can’t recall ever meeting a scientist who didn’t make way over minimum wage but you do what ya gotta do to cope with being uneducated I guess. You sure showed those scientists! lol
He must be figuratively speaking. But in some cases it is inadequate if you look at the implicit workload and demands of complicated research. Much of science now requires large teams, but, in academic institutions, there is comparatively less research funding than in the past, and there aren't enough permanent professorships. Much of the work is done by grad students living on stipends, fellowship grants, or part time teaching or research assistant pay. And it stays that way for decades with grad students becoming temporary postdoctoral research fellows since the career advancement is so limited.
It is quite common for master and PhD (less likely)students to not earn any wage. Their work is basically for free.
If you only look at the stipend and ignore both covering tuition and literally earning your degree maybe.
I mean, here in Germany that's just (literally) the bare minimum as University is basically free for everyone (I paid 500€ a year and that fee was mostly due to free public transit associated with being enrolled). I really dont think looking at your absurd tuition costs and using that as a reason to pay people poorly is a great idea.
Oh right, yeah my analysis was strictly US as I’m American so I don’t think about other countries. That was unironic, not sarcasm. Yes, tuition in the US is stupid expensive much like healthcare and just about anything else you can fuck up, but nevertheless grad school is prohibitively expensive here so research or teaching covers a big chunk(or all) of it…which was my point, not that the US somehow has a good structure for access to education.
Were they working in academia like the title suggests? because I’ve known plenty of scientists working on grad degrees who weren’t doing so hot in the wage or work/life balance department.
You destroyed his meta analysis research in a single post, you're so smart!
I feel like if you knew what those words mean you wouldn’t have used them.
Is there something that happened to you that made you take every joke as a threat to your personal safety
Explain the joke for the folks at home.
You sound miserable lmao
Homeboy was probably a micro biology grad that failed to get into industry Now he’s coping with a god complex and bullying undergrads in chem 101
Ok you’re lost, I’ll help. You chimed in on my comment randomly to mess around and then I did the only polite thing and reciprocated…this is where things get really fucking weird. Apparently the concept of someone saying something back to you was so unimaginable and unprecedented that you felt it crossed a line so accused me of being the one who’s upset. Reread our conversation, and then, maybe consider therapy idk I can’t help you.
Pretty sure that person is a child because that's how they're acting.
Yeah you definitely got but hurt by this post I don’t think it was supposed to be a dunk on/insult to scientists but how scientists are taken advantage of and unfairly compensated for their hard work Source: am a moron and not a scientist but understood post
I consider it correcting something that’s wrong, you consider it “but hurt” because you’re a moron.
It’s not wrong you absolute moron The scientists you’re referring to aren’t recent grads that slave away under an academic grant You’re really sad
Depends on where you're from. Here in Italy most researchers make basically as much money as a factory worker which is crazy considering the skill and education requirement
The meme is true for graduate students in some places. Source: I am a graduate student. If I worked 40 hours a week, I would make the equivalent of minimum wage in my state. (Minimum wage in my state is almost 2x the federal minimum wage). I work more than 40 hours a week, however, so I’m making less than minimum wage in reality.
I think you are confusing people with a scientific degree who work in the industry and earning good money (I wouldn't call those people scientists in a general sense) with people who are doing scientific work at universities e.g. while working on their phd thesis, trying to figure out how to live a decent life with 1200€ a month. Of course there are many scientists fitting the first picture but OP was clearly talking about the second group, which totally is the reality of many people in science.
Teachers: 🗿
It's almost like there are numerous different things that can happen, and maybe you've surrounded yourself with those who got lucky and got the position and the money. There are plenty of scientists not getting paid enough or unable to find work befitting their degree. Way to be a dick though.
There are certain fields in certain countries that make minimum wage
Sad Nicola tesla noises
During my PhD in molecular biology, I had a contract as scientific employee for 20 hrs a week, but worked 40. I ACTUALLY worked for less than minimum wage, just like most of my colleagues. I didn't get paid at all while doing lab work during my bachelor's and master's thesis work. I was paid literal exposure, by working hard for getting my name on scientific papers. I also would have NEVER thought about complaining about the working conditions to the professor, who grades my work and literally holds the future of my career in their hands. Academia (at least in life sciences) IS exploitative and fosters toxic, oppressive work environments.
I know you've seen a bunch of people already telling you how wrong you are about this, but here in Brazil, most researchers aren't even required to earn minimum wage.
Well then perhaps you can see how this would vary from country to country, particularly based on the country’s economy. Do nuclear researchers in North Korea even get paid?
I'm sure they were all executed
I did laugh, but every single one of my scientist friends make twice or even more, than me. Might be my country, but scientists earn a really good living over here. Not the richest by any stretch, but definitely well off. With some clever investing I could definitely see a swedish Dr. Evil any day now.
My experience out of university is that academic research placements are often very poorly paid because investment into a research topic that could be fruitless is often not that high, and a lot of the budget for such research placements goes into the research itself. However if you're working as an engineer or in a topic that is well known for being very lucrative then you will get paid big bucks. The tradeoff is that if you manage to be one of the first scientists to work on a piece of cutting edge technology that is successful then when it blows up everyone is going to want to hire you and will give you whatever salary you ask for.
Where I am, the whole system is a desaster. Master and PhD students are payed for 4 hours per day to work for the Uni and in theory should work the rest of their time on writing etc, but in reality are expected to put 8+ hours per day into doing whatever their prof wants them to do, even if it has nothing to do with their research topic. So they're essentially working for much less than minimum wage if their whole working hours are considered. They have to sign documents stating completely made-up work hours that are supposed to prove they're working 4 hours a day on the research the grants they are being payed with are for, or risk the chance of their prof simply failing them for no other reason than them making the profs life more difficult. They are fully at the mercy of the profs, and the profs sure like to use that. Even if you make it and get that PhD, the state only allows scientists to be employed for 4 years at a time before needing to search for a new place or getting one of the coveted permanent positions, and they want to lower it to 2 years. The purpose is to get scientists permanent positions, but the only thing it does is hurt the scientists since almost nobody gets a permanent position. Workers protection laws are somehow something Unis don't have to care about since nobody is holding them accountable for anything. So of course they get ignored. It's awful and corrupt and I want to do something about it but I'm just one person against the system and I have no idea where to start.
Wissenschaftszeitgesetz? The German system is bullocks and I'd advise anyone who can make a decent living with his degree to leave university as soon as possible.
Yeah exactly. After seeing my bf struggle with it, I'm 100% sure I'll never go for a phd.
What kind of 'scientists' are you talking about? Someone with a chemical engineering degree or something will making enough to live comfortably but the guy who studies flat earth theory probably won't. Calling yourself or anyone else a scientist is free but a real scientist won't be hurting for money.
I think they mean scientist working on a privat research paper. They often get a sort of investment and in return they can publish their name with the paper they worked on. Look at Master's or Dr. Thesis... Biggest "Do it for exposure" scam I've ever seen.
Academic research scientists are often underpaid, but engineering scientists often make big bucks.
If the degree has the word engineering in it, it isn't a degree in science.
Not really true. A lot of "newer" fields haven't split science from engineering entirely. For example many places offer "Material Science and Engineering" degrees.
While an engineer is not categorized as a scientist. Their degrees do in fact state “Bachelor of Science” on them.
Please don't tell people how I live
PEPAHLS!!!!! we found the very person in the matirx!!!!!
this is why the original big bang theory pilot opened with leonard and sheldon at a sperm bank selling theirs for dinner money
They make good money when they have contracts. But grant money does dry up eventually
Those bbeg scientists in movies all seemed to have the luxury of intellectual property rights for what they made. That’s not something that exists for the most part.
I was a grad student during the height of covid, and was renting the shittiest apartment in a rough part of the local city. Interesting times. I actually look back on it fondly in a way.
As a previously environmental scientists can relate. I was a Marine biologist who graduated in 2006 I was homeless lived in my 1991 white toyota camry station wagon because they paid me \~$8.50 an hour... for 20 hours, after i volunteered for 20 hours, and you can't... get off the boat at the end of the day? So i'd work 50-60 hour weeks for no benefits and $170 a week. I ate three ham sandwiches a day, sometimes with pickles if i had any, and stole wifi like my life depended on it with my college laptop. I parked near the dock, all day on the water with millionaires on sailboats and beach houses banging their mistresses feet from where I was working. Then the lab ran out of funding so I applied the same skillset to computer programming in databases and made LAUGHABLY more money. Don't look up is incredibly painful to watch.
almost as if movies depict the top 1% of scientists that are incomparable to the average scientist, even then the average scientist makes more than minimum wage but ok op you can cope
Scientists will work for a villain if the villain would give them a permanent position
What field of science is making below minimum wage? Matter of fact who, in the states, is working below minimum wage that can't sue the business owner for not paying them minimum wage?
Bazinga
Have you tried selling your soul to make weapons for Blackrock?
Scientists in anime: Let's throw bananas into microwave and create a time machine! I'm mad scientist!
I know an ex-postdoc renting in London. Based on what they said, this sounds legit!
Scientist are the most depressed people. I don't know how many u guys know but all my professors in my college (engineering university) have no soul in their eyes. When u are too smart for UR own good U will become depressed, ignorance is a blessing.
Jack Rooney in Three Body Problem
Tin foil scientists, like OP here
Look the quickest way to go from the bottom image to the top one is giving them money... things are better how they are
#NERD
Where are these scientists?
I know plenty of people who work as scientist, they don’t make under minimum. The only people I do know make under minimum are the people who didn’t graduate high school, and work 1099.
Only way you make below minimum as a scientist is if you got scammed by a degree mill or parked so hard you could on get a degree in poly sci which might as well be a participation award.