So do you fit this picture? 1

[sms]

As suggested, I started a new thread with this. I recently received the results of a USA mechanical engineering salary survey I participated in. Looks like median salary is very industry dependant, and fits me personally fairly well. I am a Mechanical engineer, 20 years experience, working in the petro-chemical industry. I am paid consistant with the General Corporate management, even though I am an individual contributor. But I also work in a central services group, so I suppose the Consultants catagory fits me. In that case I am well above median.

Based on these numbers it seems that there are several industries that engineers are still valued, just not the government, HVAC, or wood products.

Here is the data:
By type of employer, the five groups of M.E.s with the highest median incomes are:

Consultants (independent) - $105,000
Petroleum/Coal/Natural Gas (extraction & refining) - $101,250 Computers & Allied Products - $94,550 Drugs & Medicine - $94,500 Utilities-Electric - $94,000

The five groups of M.E.s with the lowest median incomes by type of employer are:

Government-State - $62,000
Heating/Air Conditioning/Refrigeration Products - $63,300
Wood and Wood Products - $63,810
Transportation Services - $64,750
Merchandising - $64,907

Median income in the many remaining types of employer studied ranged from $93,100 down to $65,000.

By primary job function, the group of M.E.s who are highest-paid are in General or Corporate Management ($123,500), followed by those in:

Consulting - $94,750
Basic R&D - $86,400
Education - $86,000
Systems Design - $85,000

The lowest median income by primary job function is that earned by those in Production/Processing/Manufacturing Engineering ($74,000), preceded by those in:

Operations & Maintenance - $84,423
Testing/Reliability Assurance/Quality Control/Standards -$75,000 Product Design - $75,000 Equipment Design - $79,400

 

[rhodie]

--RESULT--
I earn less than the median income listed for Manufacturing Engineering (lowest median income) in your post.

--CAUSE--
I recently switched jobs (<12 months) as a result of a offshoring threat to my old position, one that paid closer to the median income in the same field, and one that did indeed eventually move the bulk of operations offshore.

I am getting paid much less that my previous job, but am infinitely more secure and better valued in my present job-
and I didn't have to move houses to get it! I feel good about my future, but I will be the first to admit that I've had to sacrifice in areas of my previous standard of living.

 

[QCE]

The survey is of little value without considering experience. If you have little experience you will be below average and if you have tons of experience you will be above average. Also without knowing the sample size we get a very skewed result. If only one wood and wood product engineer answered the survey and that engineer is a new grad then the average income is terribly inaccurate.

RESULT

I earn less than the median income listed for Testing Engineer.

CAUSE

I have less experience than the median Testing Engineer.

 

[HgTX]

RESULT:
I earn lest than the median income listed for Government/State.

CAUSE:
I am a civil engineer working for Government/State.

Hg

 

[sms]

The survey was based on the responses of 8963 members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. I wonder if being an ASME member skews the results as well? Perhaps mechanical engineers with less experience don't become members of the ASME?

 

[epoisses]

Salaries are also location-dependent. I assume houses in areas where operational facilities are built tend to be cheaper than houses close to where the shiny corporate management or R&D office sits. No use to get 100k$ instead of 80 if living cost increases proportionally.

Anyway, guys, the neighbour's grass always looks greener and true job satisfaction follows from your job itself and your colleagues, not from that number you see every month (if you pay attention to it at all).

 

[BobPE]

I get to see a lot of salary surveys and it always puzzles me when I see engineering surveys...why is it that we are so underpaid, and we accept that fact so easily??????

I see this as being a very representative cross section of engineering, inclusive of geography, they typically are. I live in the middle of nowhere and my glass palace aint all that different than the next guys. I am at that top scale and you know what, I don't think that is good enough...We [engineers] deserve more for what we do, and what our contributions are to society...Seeing a scale like this, and knowing that I was not on it or on the low end of it would make me upset and downright angry...

I see industry as one of the lower classifications...what the heck is that all about???? Is that the price we pay for making ourselves a commodity? Seeing this and knowing that primary health care physicians lower range is 150,000 makes me very upset....And don't take me down that path of comparing doctors to engineers, I feel that our profession is more [yes more] important to more people at any one time than a Dr's impact.

Seeing information like this and some of the responses...yikes....

BobPE

 

[ScottyUK]

It's good to see that the salary survey in the US is as depressing as that in the UK, if only in a perverse way! I wonder if the survey results are biased because those on lower salaries don't bother to respond becasue they are so depressed by the results of the previous survey? If so, the problem becomes a vicious circle.



----------------------------------

If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!

 

[makeup]

Well said that man.

 

[pso311]

Wood and Wood Products, new grad (5/04), not even close to median.

 

[GregLocock]

Well, you wouldn't be would you? Given that your salary should double in the next twenty years?

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[StressGuy]

I hoping he's starting awfully high if it's going to take him 20 years to double it.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[rhodie]

Time should have nothing to do with it.

We should all be paid on ABILITY.

 

[GregLocock]

(Edward, that's a 3.5% rise over and above inflation, every year, for twenty years.)

Rhodie - Interesting point, if dangerous.

By observation a good draftsman is about 4 times as productive as an average one.

A really good engineer is five times as useful as an average one.

Where do you fall on that curve? Would you like to work in a company where the guy at the next desk to yours is on 20% of your pay, for nominally the same job?





Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[DrillerNic]

Well, unless the guy a the next desk was a girl, ther's not much you could do about it!

There have been a number of industrial tribunals in the UK where payrises in performance related pay schemes seems to be biased heavily by gender.

 

[BobPE]

I dont think the survey drilled to gender DrillerNic??? If you have some info it would be interesting to read here...other than that male/female...we are all in the same boat it may seem....

BobPE

 

[EddyC]

Pay seems to go up y=square root of x. Workload seems to go up y=x squared. (y being pay & workload and x being number of years on the job).