I was just wondering what do physicists make in real life?
Not the actors who play physicists, but lets say, Howard, Leonard, Sheldon and Raj were real. What would they be making in terms of salary, approximately
Less than the actors who play them.
But not so little that Howard would really have to live with his mother. He is a mama’s boy.
Howard isn’t a physicist, though. He’s a lowly engineer. Who works for NASA (sneer.)
I googled “academic physicists salary”.
I think this siteis talking about private sector jobs, but it puts an entry-level Physicist at (median) $47,200.
This site, which might be more university-oriented, says “Salary: Median—$87,450 per year” but that would include very senior employees. Looks like that site and this one from the Volscribbed from the same place: “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median 2002 salary for physics B.A./B.S. graduates in the 35 to 44 age bracket was $78,000. The higher the degree, the greater the financial rewards, with master’s degree recipients in this age group earning $87,000 and Ph.D.’s, $95,000. Industrial salaries tend to be higher, academic salaries lower.”
It’s not clear to me what Leonard, Sheldon and Raj’s jobs are. They don’t seem to teach.
Any number of the physics faculty at Caltech don’t teach classes, or only teach one a semester. And they haven’t said, but my bet is that Howard is employed by JPL.
If those salaries are accurate, then the guys seem to be living below their station in life. Unless of course they are spending it all on comic books. A rare comic book can cost.
Keep in mind that, while they are PhDs, they’re young PhDs. It probably wasn’t all that long ago that they were grad students, living on ten or twenty thousand a year (on the higher end in LA, but then again, cost of living is also high in LA), so they might still have frugal habits from that time.
OK, I just did some research of my own. According to the APS, an assistant professor (which is most likely what Leonard and Sheldon are) could probably expect to pull in somewhere in the low 60s, plus or minus 10. The numbers are similar for research faculty. If instead they’re associate professors (as Sheldon might be, but probably not Leonard), then we’re looking at the mid-70s. Raj is probably a postdoc, which would put him in the low 40s. I don’t know where to find the numbers for engineers, but Howard might be making more than the others even with his mere Master’s degree.
But the boys don’t have any frugal habits, other than not-dating. They eat out almost every night. Sheldon keeps the temperature in the apartment the same all the time. They buy comics, figurines, and tech-toys like they’re going out of style.
It’s a case of TV showing people living well beyond the means of the individuals they are portraying. *Friends *was a huge offender in this category, IIRC.
eta: Thanks for the corrections Chronos. But I can’t imagine Sheldon as a teaching professor of any kind. I’m sure the writers would have milked the comedy gold of trying to force Sheldon to explain a perfectly obvious scientific principle to a class.
Really? I’d say its the opposite, they live more frugally then their means should allow. Take-out Thai food isn’t that expensive, and while they buy a lot of toys and comics, we never see them buy anything that’s that expensive (except the replica time-machine!).
And their living arrangements are far below their means. Sheldon and Leonard are splitting an apartment in a building that waitresses from the Cheesecake factory live in, and Sheldon has no car. Howard is obviously living with his mom and rides a scooter (!), Raj, who would probably be the lowest paid person, is the only one with a car and his own apartment.
I kinda suspect the show was conceived as being about grad-students, but they later decided that Sheldon being a student at his age wouldn’t line up with his being a stuck-up prodigy, so they made them all professionals.
But Raj is the most famous one, being in People would likely benefit in some level to having his picture in People.
Raj’s family is well off, so he probably didn’t go into debt to get his education. I assume because of Sheldon’s genius some arrangements for tuition were made to keep Sheldon at the university, though it’s conceivable he has student loans. His mother seems to have a nice modest house.
Howard lives in what could be a middle class type house, but I don’t know where it is so he might have loans as well.
Leonard got his PHd when he was 24 and I know only Raj and Howard are definately under 30.
I noticed in the episode where Raj wins the people under 30 award, it’s never brought up, possibly because the actors that play Leonard and Sheldon are well into their 30s.
Which brings me to this last question, what does a waitress at the Cheesecake factory make?
I work in academia (research librarian), as do some other members of my family, and my estimate would be about what others in this thread have said – roughly $40-60k.
I’m not sure whether the characters are living beyond or within these means, as they are in a part of the country with a high cost of living. Some quick Googling indicates that a 2-bedroom apartment in the Pasadena area could easily be $1500-2000+ per month.
I agree that Pasadena COL is high, as is the boys’ (I can’t refer to them as men) lifestyles. Eating out at almost every meal, every day, impulse buying $800 shares in a Time Machine, etc., seems to be expensive, but at the same time, they don’t go out partying much, so I would say it’s relatively realistic in terms of their expected salary fitting their lifestyle.
In fact, the lack of friends and the lack of trips, social life, etc., would lead me to think that they probably do have money in the bank, but it never occurs to them to spend it on “adult” stuff like a better house, because…hey, new comic book 
Yes, but they’re at Caltech, so I would think that they’d be getting somewhat higher salaries than average.
As for that, when Penny was broke, Sheldon loaned her money quite casually, indicating that he had enough money in the bank. (Also, he doesn’t drive, so he doesn’t even have the expense of a car.
And as for Penny living across the hall, I thought someone here said that her parents are subsidizing her.
But do they live in Pasedena? When Sheldon has to buy a gift, he states to Penny there’s nothing close within walking distance, so she drives him.
I don’t recall what episode but one of the parents or perhaps it was someone else, says to Leonard and Sheldon, if they’re gonna be happy being low paid researchers to wit, Sheldon says “Yes,” and Leonard says “no.”
When Sheldon gets fired, Leonard doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about making the rent without Sheldon’s income, yet claims he can’t afford to live alone. But then we know Sheldon stashes money and is will freely lend it, indicating he has a lot of money or doesn’t know (or care) about such financial things.
I don’t recall that episode, but in one episode where she borrowed the rent from Sheldon, she was behind in it.
Penny also freaks out when the guy’s time machine costs her a day’s pay, and she starts her own business for more cash, so she clearly is concerned about money.
Also she doesn’t fix the “check engine” light on her car despite being warned about it, so perhaps she doesn’t have money to fix it.
I think I recall hearing that Sheldon is 29 and got his PhD while still a teenager. He does not have a mental condition, his mother had him tested. And he has mentioned a number of times that he has enough money for his purposes, but not how much.
IIRC, he says his mother had him tested to see if he were crazy. That doesn’t rule out all mental conditions. 
US Ph.D.'s in science and engineering almost certainly got stipends and tuition waivers for their graduate education; the stipends wouldn’t have been lavish but enough to live on frugally. However, if the characters don’t come from wealthy families then they might have had sizeable student loan debt from their undergraduate education, which they’d be paying off now that they’re out of grad school (the debt repayment would have been deferred while they were still enrolled).
Furthermore, don’t overlook the fact that many scientists and engineers simply aren’t that interested in living up to their income. (That’s why the famous Bloom County punchline “Research physicists need Porsches, too!” is a joke.) I know one Ph.D. physicist in industrial research who for several years was making a six-figure salary and still lived pretty much the same lifestyle that he had as a grad student and postdoc: modest rented apartment in student/lower middle class neighborhood, old car, hand-me-down furniture, and so forth. He did eat out a lot and traveled when he wanted, but no fancy resorts or four-star hotels.
I never asked to see his bank statements but he must have been banking or investing (or giving away, for all I know) at least dozens of thousands of dollars a year. I don’t see why the Big Bang characters couldn’t be doing the same thing, simply because material consumption (except of techie playthings, natch) isn’t really what interests them.