Anthropologist Salary

The fascinating science of humankind, anthropology, is a field that offers great career opportunities and job satisfaction to anyone who has a deep interest in knowing about the social and cultural aspect of human society. Regarded as social scientists, anthropologists work in analyzing the developments of civilizations throughout world history. If you watched discovery channel, you might have come across scientists who study and analyze archeology sites to decipher more about a particular culture or discipline. By understanding the evolution, and rise and fall of past civilizations anthropologists try to understand modern civilizations.

If you're someone who loves to enjoy challenges, then studying the origin, characteristics, behavior development etc. of human society can present before you a host of interesting tasks. Exploring and traveling the world is an exciting opportunity that awaits anybody willing to enter this career. Depending on the area of interest, anthropologists can choose to take a bachelor's and post-graduate degree in their fields. Some anthropologists move on to take a PhD level degree that helps them gain better employment opportunities. Some of the duties of an anthropologist include laboratory research, field work and spreading awareness about social patterns.

Income of an Anthropologist
The salary depends on various factors like work experience, educational qualification, employer type and location of the job. Since this field demands extensive knowledge backed by sound work experience, employers look out for employees who have worked in challenging projects and are aware about the intricacies of this job. A fresher anthropologist needs to assist senior anthropologists and work under them to learn about various facets of this stream. In initial years, working on skills is more important than expecting decent anthropology salary. The average salary of an anthropologist depends on your location and institution type. If you are an anthropologist working for some elite institution that has good research money, then probably you may be paid more relative to other anthropologists working in less elite institutions. Besides this, the important factor to consider is the location of the job.

An expensive city where costs of living are fairly high, will pay higher salaries. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a major fact finding wing of the federal government, states the average salary to be around USD 50,000, as per the statistics of 2006. According to 2009 reports, the salary in 2009 for someone with 1 to 4 years of work experience is between USD 30,000 to 50,000 annually. Anybody having a work experience of 5 to 9 years can earn between USD 50,000 to USD 90,000 annually.

Once an individual establishes himself in this field, with work experience of about 10 to 20 years, then the average salary of an anthropologist will range between USD 55,000 to 100,000. As per research conducted, growth opportunities in this field are set to increase at a rate of 16% by the end of 2016. Anthropologists working under federal governments earn fairly decent pay packages along with the job security of working in a government job.

Anthropologists also have fair chances of enjoying work in various fields. For example, with increase in the demand of research in management, scientific, and technical consulting services, the salary is bound to increase in the coming years.

The career development path for anthropologists is bright and they can move on to become authors, consultants, professors and experts in many fields offering their valuable knowledge. The salary should be a governing factor while you decide to enter in this field, however, it should not be the only one. Many employers give perks for traveling and health insurance claims. So, on a whole, if you have passion for this field, then you will surely scale great heights.