Nature Biotechnology’s Data Page this month (Nat. Biotech. 26, 14; 2008) features a topic of perennial interest, that of salaries. Stacy Lawrence reports that life-science researchers in the United States earn more than their counterparts in Japan, Australia and, by quite a considerable amount, Europe. The United States also employs more life scientists in companies than anywhere else. Large biotechnology companies generate as much profit as smaller pharmaceutical firms—with only about half the staff. At the higher end of the scale, chief executives of US biotechnology companies earned an average of $350,000 last year and held an average 5.5% stake in their companies.

Tables of these data are available at Nature Biotechnology.