Best way to determine industry standard for salary

[redbridge]

I recently had a review and it went great, the only problem was my raise percentage (1.8%) was less than the cost of living. I am now trying to figure out what the average salary is for my position (P.E. with 9 years experience). What is the best way to do this? I would like to call my peers and ask but I don't want to offend anyone. Are the online salary surveys (

http://www.engineersalary.com)

accurate. If anyone takes this survey please let me know if it is accuate.

 

[epoisses]

lburg,
You could spend a lot of time on this subject, but will it convince your boss? A salary survey is so generic that your boss will easily find 10 reasons why your specific salary is what it is, and your will find yourself in a defensive position.
Asking your peers would be a much better idea, if your colleague next door who does the same job gains 10% more, that would be much harder to defend. However I understand he/she might be offended and wouldn't necessarily feel like giving you that information.
The remaining option is to use the arguments you mentioned, i.e. review and increased cost of living. However do not only complain because that will not take you any further, think of a reasonable counter-offer and launch it, try to get into negotiations mode, not "why should I gain less than last year" mode. Good luck.

 

[COEngineeer]

Lburg, check out thread731-180866 . I guess the average raise per year is about 8%. So if we assume you started at 40k with 8% every year (which I found pretty high), you should be making about 80k right now.

 

[COEngineeer]

Its all depend on starting salary and location though.

 

[IRstuff]

What does "accurate" really mean?

I think that you'll find that the more "accurate" a survey is, the bigger the spread there will be. The "survey" alluded to earlier is hardly scientific. My personal results have ranged from as low as your lament, to a high of 16%, to a severe cut.

Trying to apply large number statistics to an individual result is quite pointless. Everything depends on how well your company is doing, what the overall raise policy is, etc.

TTFN

Eng-Tips Policies FAQ731-376

 

[KENAT]

As IR stuff says the survey COEngineer points too, though interesting, is somewhat limited.

For instance, an awful lot of the posters were in their first few years of a career where pay typically raises fairly rapidly, so this probably skews the results.

I'd guess that at 9 years you're into the zone where your increases are somewhat slower.

You may want to look at job listings for similar positions in similar locations rather than just those salary calculators.

I just used the link you gave and the suggested salary for my postion is about 5k less than I make. That said I know my manager had my experience boosted when I got my offer as I perform beyond my explicit job title. Bad news is they're supposedly planning to base pay raises on industry norms so I doubt I'm in for much of a raise this year :-(.

 

[FOETS]

Apply for other jobs
you will soon find out what someone else is willing to pay you.

 

[TGS4]

This may not help you unless you are in Alberta, Canada, but he local association of professional engineers here conduct an annual salary survey and publish the results in

http://www.apegga.org/Members/Publications/salarysurvey.html

This may give you an idea of what the variation is between industries and at different experience levels. This is quite the comprehensive survey.

 

[dcasto]

The title of the post defines an engineer, industry standard for salary. Why does everything engineers have to be a standard?

 

[SylvestreW]

To be honest, I agree FOETS. The best way to know your worth is to see what other companies will pay you.

 

[ExRanger]

Try payscale.com. The site allows individuals to anonymously post their pay data along with geographic location, company type, years experience, etc.

I found some individuals profiles on there obviously from the same company I work for. Very interesting.

But I agree with the previous poster. The only thing that seems to matter in engineering is are you willing to move and how much will another company pay to get you to move.