Salary
Average Salary: $93,300
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $3,895,000
The NIH is a government agency, and that means its scientists will have to scrape by on salaries pegged to the government pay scale. As an entry-level lab tech right out of college, you might make $35,000 each year. Staff scientists with a PhD and several years of training will usually bring home closer to $75,000 to $100,000 (source).
If you're lucky enough to be your own boss and run your own lab as a principal investigator, you might be making a hefty $125,000 annually—and that's nothing to sneeze at (unless you aspire to join the top one percent—but that's another story) (source).
While there are paychecks to be had at the NIH, some trainees at the NIH work for free. They say it's that whole "invaluable training" thing, the experience that makes your résumé shine. And hey, if a summer internship gets you into the college of your dreams, you probably won't be missing the $1,000 the rest of your friends made whipping up Egg McMuffins that summer.