Scientist vs inventor

The differences between scientists and inventors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a scientist and an inventor. Additionally, a scientist has an average salary of $97,344, which is higher than the $57,594 average annual salary of an inventor.

The top three skills for a scientist include chemistry, data analysis and patients. The most important skills for an inventor are CAD, CNC, and R.

Scientist vs inventor overview

	Scientist	Inventor
Yearly salary	$97,344	$57,594
Hourly rate	$46.80	$27.69
Growth rate	17%	3%
Number of jobs	62,467	2,932
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Average age	41	40
Years of experience	4	4

Scientist vs inventor salary

Scientists and inventors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Scientist	Inventor
Average salary	$97,344	$57,594
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $140,000	Between $31,000 And $103,000
Highest paying City	Redwood City, CA	New York, NY
Highest paying state	California	New York
Best paying company	Airbnb	Accenture
Best paying industry	Technology	-

Differences between scientist and inventor education

There are a few differences between a scientist and an inventor in terms of educational background:

	Scientist	Inventor
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Most common major	Chemistry	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	Northwestern University

Scientist vs inventor demographics

Here are the differences between scientists' and inventors' demographics:

	Scientist	Inventor
Average age	41	40
Gender ratio	Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%	Male, 79.5% Female, 20.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 1.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.3% Asian, 10.1% White, 76.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between scientist and inventor duties and responsibilities

Scientist example responsibilities.

Lead a cross-functional team to return an HIV combination product to market on random-access instrument.
Design the VERIS HIV-1 quantitative PCR assay which achieve Conformit Europ enne (CE) marking.
Manage an elemental analytical laboratory that include operating, maintaining and troubleshooting an ICP-OES, ICPMS, MXRF, and IC.
Develop and manage third party claim investigations and contractor remedial oversight for various insurance companies.
Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
Manage sample inventory via in-house laboratory information management system (LIMS) and implement additional systems for sample and chemical organization.

Inventor example responsibilities.

Manage DR, social media, PPC & SEO on Google & Facebook
Manage all aspects of production including QC, packaging needs, and adherence to worldwide product standard protocols.
Finish designing and coding a prototype in Java.
Create the 3D model and drawings with Solidworks.
Used EZIO microcontroller I/O board to interface to computer connect toys.
Create data visualization techniques for displaying production analytics data sets for an industrial IoT solution.

Scientist vs inventor skills

Common scientist skills

Chemistry, 9%
Data Analysis, 7%
Patients, 7%
Molecular Biology, 4%
Cell Culture, 4%
Java, 3%

Common inventor skills

CAD, 46%
CNC, 33%
R, 9%
Prototype, 4%
Solidworks, 2%
Product Concepts, 1%

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Scientist vs Inventor

Updated January 8, 2025

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