Australians, Danes, and Swiss are the happiest with their pay, while Ukrainians, Portuguese, and Poles are generally unhappy. Ukraine holds the unenviable position of the heaviest workload, lowest median salary, and lowest level of happiness with pay.
In comparison to broader populations within surveyed countries, the optics and photonics community fares quite well. For example, the median earnings of German survey participants is $68,953 versus the average for the general population at $41,716. In Poland, survey participants earn $17,243 versus $12,257 for the country.3