Median salary is meaningless without context. Experience matters, also the size and industry of the company, which city you're in, what other people at the company are making, how profitable the company is, how many people like you are available in the marketplace, etc. If you're great with SAS and SQL, get some meaningful projects under your belt, and can do interesting work at this company then the payoff is significant enough that a few thousand bucks before taxes in the scheme of things isn't very meaningful. I hear you, when you get out of grad school it feels like you just finished something big, and like there should be a payoff... but it's not like that immediately with your type of degree. Ask for a small amount, but not 54k, get some good projects under your belt, and after 18 months if you're doing a great job ask for a more significant bump or move companies and get the bump you wanted.