Table II: Top job functions.
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Job description. As in last year's survey, one in five respondents works in quality assurance and quality control (20%), followed by pharmaceutical
analytical development (11%), pharmaceutical development (9%), and engineering or engineering management (9%) (see Table II).
Pharmaceutical employees continue to work beyond their contracted time. On average, employees are contracted to work 39 hours
per week, but admit to actually working more than 47 hours per week, the same number of hours as last year. About 89% reported
that they do not receive financial reimbursement for extra hours worked. Most employees have worked for their current employer
for 3–5 years.
The pharmaceutical industry continues to undergo restructuring, with closures, changing markets, and consolidations. A majority
of respondents (54%) say they have been through company downsizing, restructuring, or a merger or acquisition in the past
two years. Although 39% of respondents indicated these activities changed their job responsibilities, more than 45% reported
no significant change in their jobs as a result.
Salary and benefits
Overall results. The mean base annual salary was $88,729 for all respondents, which represents a slight decrease from last year's average
of $92,412. For the first time in this survey's history, the industry failed to report an increase in the base annual salary.
Overall, employees reported an average of $10,661 in additional income from their principal employer, including bonuses, summer
work, and grants, and an average of $2728 in additional income from other professional work, bringing the reported total compensation
this year to $102,118. This value is also less than the total compensation reported in 2005 ($105,297), but higher than the
total in 2004 ($98,971) and previous years.
Figure 3
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Salary according to gender. On average, women working full time continue to earn 80% of the average salary reported by men working full time (see Figure
3). The gap between men and women's salaries is slightly higher than it was last year, when responding women averaged 82%
of their male colleagues' compensation. Both figures are in line with the 81% value reported by the US Department of Labor
for women's earnings in general (1). A major contributor to this difference is difference in the number of years of professional
experience reported by men and women. Almost half of the male respondents (46%) indicated having at least 20 years of experience
(compared with 22% of female respondents), but almost half of the female respondents (48%) said they have 10 years or less
of professional work experience (compared with only 23% of male respondents).
Figure 4
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Salary according to job function. Jobs in pharmaceutical development, consultancy, and biopharmaceutics were the top-earning fields this past year (see Figure
4). Most functions showed no change or a slight decrease from last year's mean base annual salaries.
Figure 5
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Salary according to location. On average, employees in Northeastern and Western states earned the highest salaries (see Figure 5). These regions also had
the greatest number of respondents. Respondents from Southwestern states reported the lowest average salaries, earning 74%
of the highest salaries.
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