Automotive Engineer's Salary chart? 5

[SusTestEng]

Review time is upon us at my company, and I am asking for a bit of help here. Whenever I bring up salary in my review, HR always pulls out some "special" survey of automotive companies and says I'm on track with the industry average. I really don't believe it! Just by doing some quick reseach on the net I found Mechanical engineers salaries to be grossly above(15-20%) what I earn in this area of the US. I know you can't believe everything you read on the net, but it's got me pretty frustrated.
So I have a couple questions for others in my field and situation. So, just some quick background... I work on the development side of the business, as my name suggests, I test and develop the suspension settings for vehicles. I take on a massive amount of responsibility to the vehicles I develop (I almost work alone on a new vehicle and make almost all of the decisions). I may not have the number of years to back up the resume, but my list of involvement, current responsibilities, and experience is rather extensive. This is particular to the Detroit, MI area, but please comment on any area of the world.

Is the Automotive industry below other Mechanical engineering feilds in terms of salary, which would deem a "special" survey appropriate?

Do you feel you are currently being paid the norm in the industry?

What is the common salary spread (USD) at your company for:
1-3yrs ENGINEER(recent grad/training)?
4-9yrs Senior Engineer?
10-15yrs Principal Engineer?



If you think I'm completly out line for asking, I'm sorry. I'm just really frustrated and want to make my situation better and not have to move my family.

 

[SusTestEng]

Needless to say the company's decision was NO raises this year. I guess it's time to actually start talking with the recruiters that call every week, and see what I am really worth!

 

[tomaspin]

SusTestEng,

Although I'm not in the automotive industry, I work for a multinational company, and the widely varying payscales between countries for basically similar jobs is a bit of a sore point. I stumbled upon the website

http://www.payscale.com,

which does a reasonable job at calculating 'average' payscales for a range of different occupations in different countries, so it might be of some use to you.

 

[SusTestEng]

tomaspin,

I just looked at that site.

It basically gave me the answer I thought I was worth. It seems to be right on par with my view of salaries my peers make. The worst part was the result it gave was about $12,000 more than what I currently make, but I think it is very accurate.

 

[Rob45]

I've been in automotive engineering quite a while now, and have always found that it pays better than most other fields, except perhaps in the Detroit area simply because there are so many automotive engineers there.

A senior engineer at Ford or GM without management responsibility, and with 15 to 25 years experience will be making $70K - $85K, unless highly-specialized in an in-demand field. Chrysler pays a bit less.

The best way to find out what you're worth is to do some interviewing; the best way to get a raise is unfortunately to change jobs.

 

[biglinda]

Hopefully not too late but this is my favorite salary chart. I like the presentation and ease of use compared to other sites.

http://salary.money.cnn.com/