The Public Health Career Salary

Public health can relate to child nutrition, disease control strategy or many other topics.

According to the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, public health involves jobs in both the public and the private sector. Working in public health can be rewarding and oftentimes has a rewarding salary, too, especially if you invest in your education.

Typical Careers

Biostatistics can involve analyzing trends related to human health and disease, or with planning interventions. Environmental scientists and engineers work on the interaction between human health and environment, while epidemiologists learn about disease patterns and can draw on knowledge and tools from sociology, psychology, biology and statistics. Health behavior and education workers could be public health advisers or health education consultants, while health policy and management workers could work at the strategy level, be project specialists, or be in charge of operations at a hospital or clinic. Maternal and child health are also part of public health, as is nutrition.

Getting a Higher Salary

Working for a company or organization at the forefront of your field within public health can help you get a job that pays on the higher end of the salary spectrum for individuals with your position and professional experience. For example, working with USAID, the Ford Foundation or the Gates Foundation, you can expect to command a higher salary than you might for a less prominent organization. At times you may receive a pay premium for working in a country considered a hardship posting, so-called because of the challenging quality of life you might experience.

Crossing Over

Just because your master's degree is in public health doesn't mean you're necessarily restricted to one of the typical public health careers. For example, your degree program and undergraduate education might be applied to qualify you to work in nursing, medicine, dentistry or pharmacy.

Salaries

According to the Associated Schools of Public Health, as a biomedical lab technician you can expect to make between $30,000 and $78,000, while as a biostatistician the range is between $33,000 and $63,000. Environmental health professionals can expect a higher starting salary and a higher upper range of typical average earnings; for this sector the typical salary ranges between $44,000 and $143,000. Epidemiologists can expect to make slightly less on average, with the typical range falling between $38,000 and $136,000. Those in health education or behavioral sciences, with an approach related more to the social sciences, typically earn between $33,000 and $86,000, while those in administration have a significantly higher earnings potential; the average salary of a health services administrator falls between $37,000 and $161,000. Those in international health and in nutrition have similar starting salaries, near $30,000; nutritionists typically make up to $70,000 annually, while those in international health make up to $86,000. Those in the public health program management or public health practice field generally make between $41,000 and $102,000.

References

• UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Careers
• All Allied Health Schools: Salaries for Public Health Careers
• HealthCarePathway.com: Public Health Careers