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Postdoctoral Scholar


I did my PhD in Canada. I worked as a postdoc here for 2 years. Then moved to Australia for 3 years for postdoc work, then came back 2 years ago. I've been a postdoc for 8 years overall. I'm a Canadian citizen. My salary in Australia was $100K/year. I had 17% paid by my Uni for pension, plus 7% as an individual contribution (superannuation). I also had paternity leave (1yr, 75% salary), and severance pay when I left (15%). Generally, I had more benefits and more stability.


I came to Canada to work for a top 3 Uni, and my salary was cut to $50K/year. I managed to increase this to $70K/yr by getting my own grant. I have no pension. I get 2 months of paternity leave at 80% salary. Canada is doing terribly compared to Australia. We need to find a way for postdoctoral work to be more stable and have more benefits. Otherwise, we will lose talent and lose at science.


If postdoctoral funding was CAD $60,000/yr for all postdocs, how would that change your life? Salary is only a part of it. But it will certainly help. I earn $70K/yr, but only because I got my own money. I can't imagine living on $50k or $60k a year, especially raising a family, which is the case for most postdocs. I strongly suggest working on a better pension plan and parental leaves for postdocs.



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