[McCoy]

I love all branches of chemistry and I won't mind doing any job as long as it's chemistry related. So the only thing that matters is specialising in area that will earn me ton of money (hahaha). I know getting a decent salary in any job is a function of experience and capabilities but on the average,So which branch of chemistry do you guys think is more paying? I'm assuming that there's no good money on the theoretical part of chem unless you happened to be a really good scientist.

Opinions will be appreciated.

[Mitch]

Hands down it has always been analytical chemists that make the most.

[gfunk]

Hands down it has always been analytical chemists that make the most.

Go figure.  I'd have to be paid a lot of money to do something as boring as analytical chemistry!

Apart from salaries, if you think about patent royalties and the sort, materials chemistry is a real treasure trove, provided you make a worthy discovery .

[stewie griffin]

From my somewhat limited experience I would agree that materials and analytical get the most money. Organic synthesis used to be high paying with big pharma but who knows about that anymore.
BTW, make sure you're primary motivation is that you actually enjoy chemistry. If money is the primary motivating factor then you'll have a tough time dealing with 5+ years of grad school b.s. 

[ki98mama]

Hands down it has always been analytical chemists that make the most.

Where is that? Here in England I gave up any idea of doing analytical chemistry when I saw the salleries on offer (16-18k) and I have a freaking masters plus experience!

Nope, I went into engineering instead, still got to tinker with analytical chemistry but also have a patent (a lousy one that will never make me any money) and have fun with some world wide travel and multidiciplinary cooperation with other engineers.

Money is important but golly is job satisfaction even more important...