I just want to reply to say I totally agree with the person you are responding to. I have Ph.D, I started on £20k (~$24k) as an entry level Chemist, which after 3 years has increased to £36k (~$43k, but remember the US has lower taxation than the UK) after promotion to a management position. To give you an idea of the level of responsibility I have in my role - I basically run a small team of chemists, do nothing in the lab anymore (all is delegated to more junior staff), line management, interview/hire new staff, disciplinary action / performance improvement for underperforming staff, interact with / give presentations to customers on regular basis as their primary point of contact for our company, negotiate with our suppliers to get better deals / save money, have "authorizor" levels of responsibility for reports/results we send out to customers, come up with and then implement any changes to our processes to make them more efficient, provide full training on all lab techniques in our lab, and more. My actual job title is at the Senior level, but at any other company it would probably be Team Leader. When I see numbers >$100k posted for positions that aren't even management, it really makes me realize what a raw deal we chemists have in the UK. I'm just glad I enjoy the work because if I didn't, I would have got out a long time ago.