Hi, I am finishing up my PhD study this coming May and I received an offer for a postdoc position in Chemistry at ETH. I was wondering if somebody can tell me what is the average starting salary for a postdoc at ETH? I was offered 59,000 gross salary and I heard that there are about 7% tax (pension fund) and another 7% social security tax that will be deducted from my salary.. Is that the average number? Thanks for the info

I don't think Chemistry is particually well paid, it's not brilliant pay arround average pay in CH.

That sounds a little low to me. Post docs in mol Biol. at the Uni ZH are paid more than that, and I was also under the impression that the ETH paid slightly better salaries in general as they are federally funded vs the uni, which is funded by the kanton.

That is a little low but sounds within logical limits, although I do understand ETH and EPFL have salary scales for post-docs, and I know that the salaries were revised down in recent years (when I worked at EPFL in 2008 I distinctly remember a post doc making in the 80s in biology). I would have a look on the school sites or on the federal education site to see if you can find anything about salary scales (in french it would be a "grille salariale" or epfl calls it an "echelle salariale"). The epfl site asks for a student login to access their "echelles". I'm sure ETH has the same.
Good luck.

From what I understand, the postdoc pay scales are set rates, but there are probably variations based on the field. That said, the offer seems a bit low.

Seems low, especially for the ETH. Are you sure the position is not 70-80% (i.e. 0.7-0.8fte in UK)?

With that kind of salary in Zurich, you'd probably have a better quality of life on a UK postdoc salary at a redbrick uni (excluding London, Oxford and Cambridge).

For a full-time 100% Postdoc in Chemistry , normally the first year it should be around CHF 90,000-94,000 per year. You should check if the position they are offering you is 60-70% as CHF 59,000, sounds a bit low to me for a 100% position.

You can find the ETH salary scales for postdocs here:

https://www.pa.ethz.ch/anstellung-ar..._fixem_Lohn_EN

(page 8 of link on the right).

In 2011, a 1st year PostDoc with a 100% contract had a gross salary of 84300 CHF.

It is low for a fresh PHD. It seems that you only get 70% contract.

I would say this is a 60% postdoc salary, which makes it less then a standart 100% PhD salary. Better go for a grant, check ETH postdoctoral fellowships. With the salary that you mention, you won't feel very happy in Zurich. You need at least a 90% salary (it goes with the 150% of work as usual).