Facts

• Staring into their microscopes and tracking minuscule growth patterns led to an annual average salary for microbiologists across the nation of $71,980, per the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2009 study on wages. Microbiologists looking to see their salaries grow more than microscopically should seek employment in one of the Department of Labor's top-paying industries for the field. Paying much higher than average microbiologist salaries was the federal executive branch of the government, at $97,640 per year. Another high-paying industry, medical and diagnostic laboratories, offered an annual mean wage of $80,950 for microbiologists.
  
  

Location

• Microbiologists working on the East Coast fared better financially in 2009 than the rest of the country. The state of Maryland earned the top honors in both per-capita employment of microbiologists and the highest annual mean wage, at $96,640. The second highest paying area for the field was the District of Columbia, where microbiologist salaries averaged $94,770. Also along the eastern seaboard were high paying states Georgia at $89,030, Virginia at $81,990 and Connecticut at $81,190. The state of Massachusetts came in as the second highest place for microbiologist employment per capita, although its annual mean wage of $70,580 was slightly less than the national average.
  
  

Considerations

• The path to earning a salary as a microbiologist is far from small; the career usually requires more than five years of post-graduate study to earn a PhD in biology, microbiology, botany or another closely related field. Microbiologists may also be required to publish their work in scientific journals, be present at conferences and conduct ongoing research.
  
  

Outlook

• Much like the organisms being studied on the glass slides, the field of microbiology continues to multiply and grow. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 12 percent rise in employment of microbiologists, adding 2,100 jobs to the field through the year 2018. The BLS suggests other venues of employment for microbiologists as high school biology teachers, engineering technicians or medical health technologists.