# How much should an MEP Engineer produce to justify their salary?



## crunchercrunch (Jul 27, 2015)

I am wondering how I can determine the appropriate time to ask for raises. At my current job (we'll call it company A), the company charges clients 1.4x our hourly rate to cover salary and overhead.

At a new company (company B) that I am scoping out, they claim that I will need to produce 3x my hourly rate to justify my position.

The difference between these two companies is that Company A is an international corporation and Company B is a startup. Company B's owner claims that the overhead is staggering, even though large corporations have infamous reputations of enormous overheads and slim profits. Am I getting fooled here?


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## Lomarandil (Jul 28, 2015)

In consulting engineering, I've always seen rates between 2.5-3x hourly, assuming standard levels of benefits, time off, etc.

I have no idea how company A would be making 1.4x work.


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## willsee (Jul 28, 2015)

I charge anywhere from $75 - $140 an hour, which is what the MEP firms I worked for have charged as well.


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## Road Guy (Jul 28, 2015)

For a big company a 2.8 multiplier is usually the break even point for a 10% profit...


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## crunchercrunch (Aug 3, 2015)

Road Guy said:


> For a big company a 2.8 multiplier is usually the break even point for a 10% profit...





willsee said:


> I charge anywhere from $75 - $140 an hour, which is what the MEP firms I worked for have charged as well.





Lomarandil said:


> In consulting engineering, I've always seen rates between 2.5-3x hourly, assuming standard levels of benefits, time off, etc.
> 
> I have no idea how company A would be making 1.4x work.



Thanks for your guys' responses! So for the year, if I produce 3x my salary, then I would have done what I was hired to do. At what point of production can I justify a raise? 4x? 5x?


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## willsee (Aug 6, 2015)

crunchercrunch said:


> Road Guy said:
> 
> 
> > For a big company a 2.8 multiplier is usually the break even point for a 10% profit...
> ...


When you can prove that your value is more than what they are paying you now, and they feel like keeping you around.


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