Pharma

Biotech is booming for everyone but the employees

Here’s some advice: If you’re going to work for a biotech, ask for more stock […]

Here’s some advice: If you’re going to work for a biotech, ask for more stock options.

The Timmerman Report is among those who recently put into focus what a few analysts have been saying: Most biotech worker bees aren’t seeing the benefits of the biotech boom (or bubble) in their paychecks.

Why the stagnation? There are a glut of jobs, sure, but also plenty of unemployed workers – either from layoffs from long ago (the recession took its toll) or from a regular churn of employee dumps as acquisitions occur and big pharma continues to whittle down R&D. Outsourcing abroad is a factor. Biotechs still don’t have to work too hard to attract employees.

I get the feeling, though, that the state of salaries today in biotech won’t be the same in six or even 12 months, as the boom/bubble keeps changing.

It’s not all bad news, Timmerman wrote: C-suite salaries are making a comeback. While rank-and-file jobs are flat at 3 percent increases, cash compensation for executives climbed 4.2 percent in 2014 – nearly triple 2011. The Scientist, in its 2014 salary survey, also noted that pure biotech salaries took a big hit. But at the same time, researchers working in the hot fields of genetics, genomics and immunology reported incomes that were 10 to 13 percent higher in 2014 than 2013. But while they’re investor darlings, the biotech boom isn’t limited to these fields. Shouldn’t demand be high these days across the board?

In any case, as The Scientist points out, money isn’t everything. Benefits like intellectual freedom and stock options are strong lures to keep life sciences workers churning.

Here’s my take: If you’re getting hired now, request lots of options and a salary review in six months. The boom is still underway, but it doesn’t look like workers will get the cash benefit for at least a little while longer. Crossing fingers the bubble doesn’t burst.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Max Westby]

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