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Engineering salary data for the UK and the USA 5

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geotechguy1

geotechguy1

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Oct 23, 2009
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Anyone know of any good sources for salary data for the UK and the USA? In Canada, NZ and Australia the professional associations publish fairly comprehensive salary surveys but I've been unable to find anything other then forum threads and glassdoor data for salary data in the UK and the USA.

Editing to say that I don't find the glassdoor data helpful because in NZ / Canada it's to broad to be of any use compared to the salary surveys done by the professional associations.
 
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ASME publishes a salary survey along with numerous articles on the matter for those of us stateside, breaking income down by experience and industry.
 
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For the US, look up OEWS (occupational employment wage statistics)from the US BLS. It provides wage quartiles for engineering and other professiona, and is even broken down by specific categories within a given discipline.

It’s the best and most accurate wage info you’ll get for free.
 
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I presume you're in the UK and thinking about moving to the US?

I'm a Brit working in the USA. For what it's worth I am paid around 2.5 times (gross) what I would earn in the Britain. A few years ago I thought about returning, but as soon as I realized how low salaries were (circa 60-90K) I changed my mind. My advice to all engineering graduates would be to plot a course that allows you to leave the UK in your early 30s, with the best destinations being the USA, Australia and EU. I don't know of a single expat here who regrets leaving, and we ALL talk with contempt about employers and prospects in the UK. Engineering is a broken and abused profession that's sneered at (as you may have noticed in the BBCs The Spit.) The opposite is true in the USA and EU, where being a 'techie' or 'nerd' is lauded because industry values and pays for superior intelligence and creativity. Contrast that with the UK where cheats and liars in the City of London are paid multiples of the average wage.

I suspect British engineers are paid derisory wages because the professional institutions are run by the large employers. The institutions privately rig the market by setting wage bands. To give you an example, a company with offices in the UK and USA providing the exact same services to a client in the ME, at the same hourly rates, pays the Brits peanuts, and the Americans around $175K plus healthcare and bonus. The only downside is 2weeks leave when you start, however, that increases over the course of a career to about 5 weeks, pensions are better too. I did ask one prospective UK employer why they were offering 70k when I knew they would be billing me at 150/hr - that seems like grotesque greed to me. They hadn't trained me, were offering marginal benefits, and would have dumped me in an ugly open-plan office working on endless 'projects'. Dream on!

Anyone hesitant about leaving should grow a pair and get on with making the best of their lives.
 
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I'm from Canada, living in NZ but contemplating UK or USA. NZ seems almost as bad as what you are describing in the UK. Large companies run salary multipliers around five (Canadian firms aimed for 3 - 3.3 as a dream in a perfect year but frequently run 2.25 - 2.5, lower for government work).

The upside to the UK for me is I have British citizenship by descent so it's easier to get in and also I have some interest in going for a couple of years to make travelling Europe easier. Do you think anything has changed since Brexit? There was large uptick in British companies pursuing Canadians that previously didn't exist, just wondering if that's translated into an increase in salaries.
 
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According to this
In 2018 an average UK engineer was 46 years old and earned (sound of trumpets, or was that raspberries?) 60000 USD

That is to within cooee of what we paid new GRADUATES in Oz, in 2021. However COL is important, and the industrial parts of the UK are significantly cheaper than where most of the work is in Oz.




Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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For long term stuff? I haven't seen that, but I'm in automotive. My last job where it was an issue was base time was 100%, but when the customer indulged in scope creep, 600%. So the main job of the management team was to ask the customer whether they thought some fancy new feature would be good.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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geotechguy1, If a significant part of your thinking is being close to Europe then forget the UK. We vacation in Italy or Greece most years and the jet lag is a small price to pay for higher wages here. That said, I think you should apply for positions in both the UK, EU and USA. You'll quickly see which employers truly value your skillset which (assuming it's engineering related) has a global marketplace. I mention the EU because an acquaintance of mine just got a job in Switzerland (late 30's, base 120kEuro p.a., relocation, and a stupid amount of leave.)

After positing above I did a little reading to catch up on how engineers in the UK feel about their profession. It's not improved since I left in the 90s and if anything it's worse. Engineers are also still whingeing on about technicians being called engineers. Who is responsible for that? The Institutions! They have done nothing in the quarter century I've been away. The reason is there is a faustian pact between the large employers and the Institutions (they are essentially the same people.) The Institutions put on a good show, but don't act in the interests of their members. The 'marketplace' for engineers is stymied by backroom discussions on pay bands, and lax immigration laws that allow employers to depress wages using work visas. (In truth, there is some of that here in the USA but it's not at a level that has flooded the market with cheap postgraduates.)

One interesting fact is to see how well paid the most senior managers are in the UK, the delta with US equivalents is much lower. Every engineer should mull on the fact that companies like say Arup, Wood etc. sell the same services internationally to companies at pretty much the same rates. So why are Americans paid multiples? How on earth can they justify an average wage of $60k for a British engineer when a mediocre government manager is paid more and gets a gold plated pension.

Now final thought, if you are under 30 then seriously look at exiting engineering and entering computer science, for example via data analytics, ML, etc. This is the new 'hot' career and will be for most of your remaining workalife. What you decide this next few months will affect you for the rest of your life.

And FYI - two Mercedes, 4000 sq ft house, pool, cinema room, huge fridge, four TVs, and Jaffa Cakes from the British Store.
 
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How does that translate into actual hours worked in the UK though? Are people doing 50-60 hours a week constantly like in Canada / the USA?

A big difference in NZ is that the average engineer seems to take a dozen sickies a year and projects are expected to be 6 months to a year late and 300% overbudget on consulting fees as par for the course. I've often wondered if the salaries just reflect every PM trying to build themselves a gravy train of chargeable hours and not do any actual work. Not sure if the UK is similar.
 
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Are people doing 50-60 hours a week constantly like in Canada / the USA?
Click to expand...

Not everybody stateside does 50+, lots of smaller companies are what I consider "old-fashioned" - fat with employees pulling 8-4, 40/wk. Those tend to be the companies tho with mediocre pay, slightly more expensive benefits, and only 2-4 weeks vacation. I'm a work-hard, play-hard guy so want top money, cheap benefits, and 6+ weeks off.
 
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BPW363 said:
I'm a Brit working in the USA. For what it's worth I am paid around 2.5 times (gross) what I would earn in the Britain.
Click to expand...

Is that figure before or after paying the steep monthly gated community fees / elevated property taxes and purchasing the requisite firearms and ammo?

"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"
 
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