Thanks for all the input guys! I have been keeping a list of all the improvements I have been making but haven’t quantified the revenue impact so that is next on my to do list! I appreciate you guys taking the time to help out!
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How much did the guy you replace make? That’s where I would start.
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A lot of guys are throwing out 100k. I think that’s a joke considering your at 18$ an hour right now.
Your wayyyy better off asking for that 50-55k a year range and then having them institute a production bonus structure. So you get paid directly from the profits you bring them.
This way you can easily make it into 100k a year while not making your owners head spin by such a large ask.
Find out how you would like that set up. Find a metric that can be tracked that you directly influence and can show you yield. Then place a number on it and a monthly bonus should you hit or exceed your numbers. Submit this plan to your boss and go from there. If you over ask your boss is going to become concerned you’ve over valued yourself and could begin looking to soak your knowledge out and look for a cheaper replacement
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$60,000 a year is within a standard deviation of the average starting pay for someone with no experience other than a chemistry bachelor’s degree. So to have already brought serious value to the company and still not be making well above that is not very cool.
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This is false. I had a dozen plus candidates apply with chemistry degrees. They are no use to me if I have to train them. They have to show their worth before I’m paying them 60k when I can get someone with years of extraction experience who have run labs before for 80-90k why would I pay someone who knows nothing 60?
Chemistry degree means really nothing. Just means they are hopefully intelligent. Now maybe a masters in organic chemistry or something along those lines may be justifiable for 60k If they’ve had applicable experience in other fields.
Y’all forget how many people there out there willing to work for way less to just get experience. Or those without degrees with tons of experience that will happily work for 60k.
Slot of people way over valuing themselves and job hunting for ever
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If you have a college degree you from a real college not a for profit college, you deserve to make at least $20 a hr. If you have an actual college degree and are using in the field you went to school. You should earn at least $25 an hour.
There isnt a job on this plant “in real corporate america” where the candidate doesnt go threw training. Its almost absurd hearing that people are expected to come into a new company and not be properly trained. Most people exagerate on their applications and im suppose to use that information and let you run hog wild in the company…no! Real companies have structure and spend lots of money figuring out how to properly maximize a candidates potential. Yes a college degree only indicates a persons abilitlity to learn…its the companies duty to maximize those abilities.
I think if you been happy making $18 and overtime. 60K isnt bad. your young. You have lots of time for real earning. its time to build more skills to make you even more indispensable. 60K should be deceit pay outta school. Should have graduated in the early 2000s with a computer science degree, they gave every magna cum laude 100k right outta college…then the tech bubble broke! hahaha
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Well I am not sure what you consider a for profit college cause my experience in the education world led me to believe that most if not all are for profit. The cost of education seems to not justify what you are given for the money in return. But I graduated from Ohio State with my Biochemistry Bachelor’s and then jumped into this field. I was happy with $18/Hr when I started because I was fresh out of school but with it being a start up, I feel I have worked well beyond the job description I was hired for, and excelled beyond expectations while doing it.
I also have been thinking the 70-100K range was a bit high as I do not have a lot of experience. I do feel I have shown my worth and just touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of my true potential as I am extremely passionate about this industry and also love chemistry which has lead me to spending many hours unpaid outside of work researching ways to improve just for my own interests, and the company has benefited from that and will continue to if they keep me on. I personally was thinking in the range of 60-65K as I do not think that is low balling myself for what I have done and my experience level but is also not unreasonable. With everyone’s input, I now feel confident bringing that number to them and letting them counter offer. To me the worst case scenario is them telling me no and giving me a lower number and getting a years of managerial experience before finding a new company that will see my worth, but who knows maybe they will see my worth and pay for it, allowing me to grow with the company!
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To be honest, $100k is pretty unrealistic for the current industry with just a BS and no experience. $60k is definitely much more in your ballpark.
There’s always going to be the guys who say “set your value and accept nothing less”, but the plain old truth is that it’s only typical for $100k+ in most of the industry if you’re going to be the lab director.
In a lot of these cannabis startups even the executives are generally only pulling $130k-200. Sure some of the bigger companies pay that and there are guys out there pulling $100k+ in niche jobs, but that’s by far not the standard.
The fact of the matter is, guys with a 4 year chemistry degree are a dime in a dozen in America. We currently have an abundance of highly skilled workers, we don’t have an abundance of people with 3-5+ years of experience working in cannabis labs. I would never expect more than $70-80k with no experience without at least a masters degree. Many here would say that’s harsh, but its just how it tends to work.
If you want to work for a company with huge budgets and room for growth and stability, then I’d go into biotech or pharmaceuticals, and even those jobs are very competitive.
Lets also not forget that most cannabis chemistry and formulating is at the low end of difficulty in the world of chemistry. If you want to work on more advanced stuff then take a pay cut and go work in the research field, if you discover something big then cash in on it.
Or, you could try to seek funding and try to start a company of your own, high risk/high reward.
TLDR: A BS in chemistry and no experience will not earn you $100k+ in legal cannabis fresh out of college MOST of the time. If you can achieve that then hats off to ya and I’m happy for you .
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I second @Siosis with all the 100k fantasies. Your really can’t expect to go from 40k a year to 100k especially If there is another guy willing to do the same job for 50k a year. What they failed to teach you at the U you graduated from was how to get the most out of the hand you were dealt.
Being a startup you should have come in looking for a share(%) or a bonus pay based on productivity. I look for employees like this that are willing to work hard for a bonus.
How many employees in this company get paid 100k a year?
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Would you be the head of this lab or is there someone above you that deals with management/ownership? If you’re the top guy then don’t take less than $60,000. Are you expected to take on employees and train them in this time? If yes, that puts you closer to $75-80k. You’re in a good spot because not many skilled operators want to move into the Ohio market. And if you walk, they wait 3-4 weeks to replace you while they get interviews and state employment badges together. You’re in a good spot.
Always ask for too much. Always. Margins are insane especially in Ohio. They’re asking too much for an 8th, right? But your company likely has a lot of debt still so they’re going to talk you down no matter the number you put out there.
I’d ask for $30-40 per hour or about $75,000 per year. When they talk you down ask for bonuses based on production. Meaning, if you produce x amount of grams they will give you a bonus. Bring a list of options to the meeting for them to decide on and be proactive about it. Get the bonus in writing before you sign your new contract. In the eyes of the owner, you want the bonus money to come out of the customer pocket, meaning based on sales. I’d also recommend you getting equity of a part of the growth in any way shape or form. Ask for 1-5% and be happy with any. Don’t sign vesting periods longer than a year. If they say no to equity, ask for the same percentage of gross sales over a period of time. Had a buddy get 5% gross sales from a cultivator/processor over 5 years. He’s working another job now and still raking in that bonus money.
Edit: $75,000/$25 per gram wholesale = 3000. You need to make 3000 grams of dab a year to earn back your salary. This is to prove that $75k plus bonues/growth is reasonable.
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What if I applied?
Youd start me at 18 an hour?
Running a regular lab and an extraction lab are 2 different thing.
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If you applied you’d be at probably 90,000-100,000 plus production bonuses.
There’s 2 different tiers of “running a lab” guys who were just managers and have done different roles. Or guys who have genuinely run their entire lab and consult on additional build outs.
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I’m a lab manager in Ohio, you should probably DM me. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes right now, depending on where you’re located and who you’re working for. I can give you some pretty sane numbers to throw out if I know how big your team is and what market you serve.
The long and short of it is, if you can demonstrate the value-add you’ve provided, ask for 50% more. There are some pretty major cash-flow issues with a lot of companies right now, especially up north, and getting blood from a stone isn’t going to get you anywhere fast.
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I like the idea of asking for a nominal salary increase and a nice production based incentive.
High salary can easily equate to more work, where as a production bonus can both increase your income and reduce your workload.
Get paid more for being smarter, not working too hard. Use that additional income and time to establish a secondary income stream (after investing in self of course)
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This should be every professionals goal no matter the field. Find a situation where your compensation is more reflective of what you make happen as opposed to how much time you spend at it.
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Remember also that experience has value. If this company is giving you the opportunity to learn what you are trying to learn then that’s part of your pay. I ran labs (was the only technician) for years at $20-$22/hr because those labs were basically paying me to learn. It really takes working at multiple labs with different set ups to gain the kind of knowledge where you are worth $80-100K/yr.
I’d say you’re off to a good start, keep learning, make friends with other labs and lab techs, try new things at the lab whenever you can, be patient. A production lab can give you a lot of experience in a short time, but can it can also be easy to just fall into habits and stop learning. Especially after you’ve been doing this stuff for 8-10hrs a day for years on end. Find a way to teach yourself something on every run or procedure you do, every time. Keep meticulous notes and take lots of pictures and videos of all the amazing things you see throughout the day.
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You may love chemistry, but never make a dime from it. Science in general doesn’t pay very well.
If you are looking for big bucks, get out of science.
If you wanna make more money, your best bet is to get on with a new company starting out making more than your current pay. If you started at $18, your “promotion” maybe 2-3 dollars increase.
Anytime I got an increase in pay, it is because I changed jobs. My pay increased about 30% last time I changed jobs. My last two job changes before that, my pay increased 15-20% each time. Currently I am making just shy of 6-figures.
You are young and fresh, bid your time and find a new opportunity elsewhere.
As time goes on and more “corporate” entities come into this industry, your education background will open more doors. If you have some experience in a regulated environment like drugs, food, etc., it will give you a big advantage as a job seeker when seeking opportunities with more “corporate” entities, which typically have the budget to pay you more than the smaller guys.
Also any descent outfit should expect to provide some level of training to a new employee. How else can an employer ensure regulatory compliance, product quality and consistency? These are products that are going into someone’s body. There is no GMP Company (like FDA comes and audits you) that doesn’t have some kind of training program/regime. Ha, tell an FDA auditor you don’t train new hires - see how fast they come at you with a 483. As someone else mentioned, any large successful enterprise offers training. If an employer feels like they are doing you a favor by offering training, that is not a place where you want to work. Unfortunately this attitude this pervasive in this nascent industry at the moment but will change as it matures and standards are enforced.
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We use the word “lab” a lot in this industry to describe essentially what is production work, but is this accurate? A lab is a controlled environment to test hypothesis through experiments designed As part of scientific method. So what is a “real” lab? An analytical lab accredited to ISO 17025?
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I was an R&D chemist in the polymer field in southern Ohio. I have a Masters Degree in Polymer Chemistry and I made $75k a year.
If you have a Bachelor’s and are looking to build your resume I would ask $50k to start. Clearly they like your work but you dont want to price yourself out of the job.
You could include performance bonuses in your request.
Good Luck!
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I have no degree but plenty of experience including a year of heading a type 6 lab. I got 85k 2% production 10% for wholesale accounts I bag(I was a purchasing manager as well so I haggled a sales deal on mine.) I believe you proved to them you are easily worth a percentage or 6 figures. Only works at this point if you can expedite/streamline/optimize more processes. Tell them you are willing to share more intellectual property for more green. You GREATLY increased their profits If they cant see that apply elsewhere and see if someone will, I thought I’d have no luck but experience is HUGE. Go get what you deserve!
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