Key takeaways:

• Industry roles have the widest total comp spread — a PhD Principal Scientist at an enterprise biotech can clear $490k+ total (base + bonus + equity + benefits), while the same title in academia peaks around $135k
• Government roles have the lowest base but the highest benefits value (~$28–40k), reflecting federal pension, healthcare, and job security that private sector rarely matches
• Clinical roles sit between academia and industry — meaningful bonuses but minimal equity
• The PhD vs MS gap is most dramatic in Industry, where a PhD Bioinformatics Scientist earns ~15–30% more base and often 2x the equity
• Equity is the great differentiator in Industry — at startups it's speculative; at enterprises it's very real and often exceeds the bonus
• All data is drawn from the sources listed at the bottom of the tool (BLS, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, LinkedIn, Indeed, NIH, AAAS, Nature Careers) and reflects 2023–2024 U.S. national median estimates. Individual variation by geography (SF/Boston vs. national) can shift these numbers significantly.