The new research shows that salaries jumped 7.2 per cent compared to last year, while the consumer price index increased only by 3.8 per cent, and represents a significant increase for this type of survey. "From my perspective and the people we recruit, what's really driving salaries up is the competition for the very best people," Alan Lambowitz, director of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin told The Scientist.

"Everybody wants the same 10 or 15 people, and those are the people who are driving the salaries up."

According to the survey, conducted by consulting firm Abbott, Langer & Associates, a life scientist with a PhD and 10 to 14 years of professional experience can now expect to earn $73,751.

The survey also found that while salaries of scientists working in biotech companies continue to bury those of their colleagues in academia and government, the pace of growth in academic salaries, at 12.6 per cent in 2006, beat increases in both private firms, up 9.6 per cent, and government, up 8.1 per cent.

There's also hope for young scientists coming into the market as entry-level wages rose 8.3 per cent to $39,000.

Meanwhile, scientists with more than 30 years of experience saw no change in median salary.

Scientists in the radiation field were the highest paid in 2006 with an average salary of $144,550, followed by drug discovery workers at $99,500 and toxicology at $99,000.

Compensation for PhD scientists who have skills in particular niche areas has gone up significantly in the last five years, led by molecular biology and cell biology, two specialisations that saw an increase of more than 40 per cent, the survey showed.

Meanwhile, wages in immunology, pharmacology and drug discovery have climbed by more than 30 per cent since 2001.

However, salaries in microbiology have not seen such an outstanding boost and the average pay for scientists in this field rose just 10 per in the last five years.

In addition, some specialisations have even 'underperformed', like in mycobacteriology where the average salary for 2006 is at $52,000, a four per cent slump compared to the previous year.

The survey, "Compensation of Life Scientists in the USA," sponsored by The Scientist, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has been conducted every year since 2001.