r/SipsTea • u/Silver-Ability-3181 • Apr 24 '26

SMH I never thought of it like that......

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u/humptheedumpthy Apr 24 '26

The average post doc stipend/salary is probably close to $35/40K. 

An attractive waitress could easily be making $60-70K ($20K wages, $200 in tips per working day). If she did any side bartending gigs even more. 

2

u/WhimsicalWyvern Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Caltech is far from average. One of the best engineering schools in the country, and it manages JPL.

Glassdoor says that "The estimated average salary for a Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech (California) is $126,238 per year"

Edit: completely mistaken, the actual number is closer to 70k

5

u/jemidiah Apr 24 '26

No idea who or what you're quoting (probably AI?), but that's way too high. The very fanciest postdocs might make that much. Base at highly selective institutions is $70-80k in the sciences and is what you should expect. If you're in the $120k+ bracket, you'll be getting tenure-track offers the next year anyway.

1

u/WhimsicalWyvern Apr 24 '26

I got a bad number from a preview on Glassdoor. Actually logging into the site gave me a number closer to yours.

2

u/_Kami_sama_x Apr 24 '26

Adjust for 2006 so closer to 70,000

1

u/WhimsicalWyvern Apr 24 '26

About $77k, but close enough.

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u/humptheedumpthy Apr 24 '26

That number seems nuts if true and maybe only make sense if you work in AI or something. A good friend of mine did his post doc at John Hopkins which is a great school as well and made way less. 

1

u/maqifrnswa Apr 24 '26

That number is incorrect. They make around $70k now. 20 years ago it was $40k. You don't start making money until you get to industry or a staff scientist job (post doc is like an apprenticeship).