Labor Market Pulse · Life Sciences · September 2026
Life Sciences Labor Market Report: Green Bay, WI MSA — September 2026
Green Bay pays a national premium for scarce regulatory talent.
Regulatory Affairs Specialist pay in Green Bay ($108,813) now outpaces the national median, even as Clinical Data Manager pay falls sharply and statewide wage growth decelerates to 3.7%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.1% — vs 4.56% long-term metro average
- Regulatory Affairs advertised pay: $108,813 — Above $104,000 national median
- Wisconsin wage growth 2026: 3.7% — Down from 4.2% in 2025
- Wisconsin WARN notices YTD: 3,914 workers — Down 7% vs 2025
Key takeaways
Regulatory and validation talent now costs a national premium locally.
Regulatory Affairs Specialist and Validation Engineer advertised pay both exceed or match national medians in Green Bay, an inversion rarely seen outside major biotech hubs. This likely reflects a thin regional bench competing against Madison and national biopharma demand rather than a local cost-of-living effect.
Clinical data and lab tech pay softening sends a build-vs-buy signal.
Clinical Data Manager pay fell significantly locally ($115,389, down from higher levels) and Lab Technician pay dropped sharply to $38,480, pointing to functions where CRO/CDMO outsourcing or centralized data operations may be absorbing demand rather than local in-house hiring. Leaders weighing headcount additions in these functions should test outsourced options before assuming local pay reflects a tightening trend.
Wisconsin's wage deceleration offers a narrow hiring window.
State wage growth is slowing to 3.7% from 4.2% in 2025, and payroll growth remains low-hire, low-fire — a rare moment of reduced poaching risk for specialized R&D and QA staff. That window likely narrows once national biopharma hiring, already showing 64% of organizations actively recruiting despite September layoffs, pulls talent toward higher-paying coastal markets.
Manufacturing wage strength complicates life sci recruiting from adjacent sectors.
Green Bay manufacturing pays an average weekly wage of $1,360, close to healthcare's $1,310, meaning life sci employers can no longer assume a wage advantage when recruiting technicians and quality staff from the broader industrial base. This compression may force a rethink of entry-level technical compensation bands historically set against regional manufacturing norms.
Median advertised pay by role — Green Bay, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research Scientist * | $88,178 | $111,019 | $117,649 | Significant increase | $131,354 |
| Clinical Research Associate * | $54,120 | $77,007 | $118,764 | Significant increase | $90,956 |
| Lab Technician | $33,908 | $38,480 | $40,560 | Significant decline | $47,402 |
| Regulatory Affairs Specialist * | $84,500 | $108,813 | $108,814 | Significant increase | $104,000 |
| Clinical Data Manager * | $93,991 | $115,389 | $122,805 | Significant decline | $123,031 |
| Biostatistician * | $78,333 | $117,388 | $125,000 | Significant increase | $133,322 |
| Validation Engineer * | $91,500 | $109,273 | $130,000 | Significant increase | $108,377 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Green Bay's 3.1% May unemployment rate sits well below the long-term metro average of 4.56%, with manufacturing and healthcare anchoring a labor market that continues adding jobs — Brown County nonfarm employment rose to roughly 180,800 by May, up from 179,000 in January. That tightness is occurring against a Wisconsin backdrop of "low-hire, low-fire" momentum and a state wage-growth deceleration to 3.7%, meaning Green Bay employers face a shallow local candidate pool even as broader pay pressure cools.
What it means
Metro advertised pay for Regulatory Affairs Specialist ($108,813) and Validation Engineer ($109,273) now runs above or near national medians — unusual for a secondary market — suggesting local employers are bidding aggressively for the narrow pool of regulatory and manufacturing-quality talent needed to support Wisconsin's biologics and CMC expansion. With Clinical Data Manager and Lab Technician pay falling locally, headcount planning should differentiate functions under genuine scarcity pressure from those where remote or outsourced delivery can absorb softening demand. Consider reviewing regulatory and validation engineering compensation against national data specifically, since Green Bay's premium-pricing pattern in these roles may reflect a structural, not temporary, scarcity.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Brown County nonfarm employment has grown steadily through spring 2026; watch whether June–August BLS releases (expected with a reporting lag) show continued gains in professional/scientific categories or a plateau consistent with statewide stalling.
Emerging pressure point: National biopharma layoffs (BioMarin, Bristol Myers) are concentrated in consolidation functions, not execution roles — monitor whether any displaced regulatory or CMC talent surfaces in the Wisconsin candidate pool, offering a rare sourcing opportunity for scarce specialties.
Early indicator: Madison's life science lab vacancy rate ticking up to 4% may signal early capacity loosening in the state's primary biotech hub; a continued rise could ease build-vs-outsource tradeoffs for Green Bay-based organizations considering shared lab or CDMO arrangements.
Potential inflection point: Wisconsin WARN filings are down 7% year-over-year with manufacturing historically dominant; a reversal — particularly in Green Bay's dense manufacturing base — would be the clearest signal yet of labor supply loosening for adjacent technical and quality roles.
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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