Side-by-side distribution
Chemist
$78,260
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 28.3%
- Live roles
- 247
Postdoc
$75,475
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.1%
- Live roles
- 338
Highest-paying jobs
Clinical Chemist
Medicinal Chemist
Senior Materials Chemist
Polymer Chemist/Plating Expert
Process Chemist
DARPA SETA Physical Chemist/Materials Scientist SME
Computational Chemist (Machine Learning) I / II
Computational Chemist - GPU Acceleration
Computational Synthetic Chemist
R&D Polymer Chemist
Highest-paying jobs
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Physics Expert (PhD / Postdoc)
Physics Expert (Postdoc / Junior professor)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Real-Time Generative AI for Automotive XR
Clinical Sciences FY27 Postdoctoral Fellow – Open Pool
Postdoctoral Research Associate / Fellow (Cognitive Science of Language)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Protein Engineering for Biocatalysis
PostDoc – Machine Learning
Postdoctoral Researcher – Quantum Devices and Experiments (NST)
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Republic Services
|
$78,333 | 7 |
Abbott
|
$59,488 | 6 |
Cardinal Health
|
$73,304 | 4 |
| IT ITW | $104,500 | 3 |
|
Amentum
|
$80,000 | 3 |
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
|
$56,160 | 3 |
Veolia
|
$40,593 | 3 |
PPG
|
$103,875 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
The University of Texas at Austin
|
$65,000 | 24 |
| UO University of Queensland | $99,516 | 12 |
| NO Novartis | $82,550 | 11 |
University of British Columbia
|
$62,500 | 11 |
| BI Beth Israel Lahey Health | $60,000 | 11 |
| MG Mass General Brigham | $70,875 | 9 |
Roche
|
$103,250 | 8 |
| CS Colorado State University | $66,250 | 8 |
Postdoc salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $103,250 | 11 |
| New York | $74,787 | 9 |
| Boston | $72,754 | 13 |
| Austin | $63,480 | 9 |
Chemist vs Postdoc: which pays more?
The median for Chemist is $78,260 per year (typically $63,960–$105,660), versus $75,475 for Postdoc ($63,480–$95,000). That puts Chemist about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chemist and Postdoc are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.