Engineering Salaries

A few surveys I have compiled regarding engineering salaries.

JR

Engineer_Salaries.pdf

Ok, Why the heck are the IE's making all the coin? Maybe it's just the ones I've been around, but I've never been that impressed with IE's to think they are top of the heap. I really don't mean that as a dig, just there is a pretty good discrepancy, and usually IE's don't have the same level of responsibility that say a structural or a professional electrical would have. I know it depends on the field, but I typically find levels of responsibility correlate to pay (a bit idealistic, but not so far off the mark). So what am I missing here?

John

IE's are getting a LOT of focus in manufacturing lately because of new momentum in US for Lean manufacturing. If companies haven't implemented some of the Lean culture, many are looking to that to improve so they can compete with overseas pressure. That being said - many of the jobs we've put in our plant in the last 2 years have been for that purpose and all have been with IE backgrounds (new graduates). Supply / demand?

the civil #'s in JR's chart seem really low.

Those salaries are unfactored, right? My company uses a phi factor of 0.5.

Its rare to find engineers that have 30 plus years experience.

Actually, I wonder if the two charts even work together. Looking at the two charts together, it would seem that the average engineer would have a lot of experience. What about all the engineers out there with less than the minimally shown 9 years experience?

Overall, I agree that the numbers are definitely low. I was making about $60k plus benefits with about 2-3 years of experience and that's before I get my P.E. license.

As soon as I get my license in the mail, I will be up to my eyeballs in work and I will bill out at $100 an hour. I currently work from home so I don't have to rent an office. I have about $10k in engineering software plus insurance, computers, some advertising, maybe I will buy GPS survey equipment but no matter how I slice it, I should be able to clear well above the top numbers shown for Civil Engineers.

Maybe I just live in an area where there is lots more work than there is qualified registrants to take responsible charge.

I know several other P.E>'s that charge around $150 per billable hour. I know only one that charges less than $100.

I'm interested in other perspectives...

100/hour would be the norm by company standards, factoring in a minimum multiplier of 2.8 then $100 billed would equate to $35/hour to the employee ($73K/year) which is what I would expect for a PE with more than 6 years experience to make these days.

Of course if you work for yourself then its all gravy, but in tax terms you want to make it not look like all gravy.......

In Atlanta I dont know many Transportation PE's (really more PM's) with around 10 years experience that are not either over $100K/year or pretty close to it.

Have any of you used this salary calculator before? It seems pretty accurate to me, what about you all?

http://www.engineersalary.com/

Pretty cool, but it isn't as "complete" as it advertises. For example, it has an "industry" choice for US government, but nothing for state gov, city, county, etc.

Fun for playing around and seeing what my salary should be, for example, if I went into private practice. But then again, is there such a thing as "salary" for the owner of a sole proprietorship?

Dleg said:

Pretty cool, but it isn't as "complete" as it advertises. For example, it has an "industry" choice for US government, but nothing for state gov, city, county, etc.
Fun for playing around and seeing what my salary should be, for example, if I went into private practice. But then again, is there such a thing as "salary" for the owner of a sole proprietorship?

Click to expand...

I'm in the private industry and it is pretty accurate so far. It might be a little further off as one moves up into management, partnership, etc.

JoeBoone82 said:

Have any of you used this salary calculator before? It seems pretty accurate to me, what about you all?
http://www.engineersalary.com/

Click to expand...

The problem with engineersalary.com is that they don't define what each job level means. When looking at salary, you really need to compare the job itself, not just the title.

Joe you say it is accurate for you but how do you know. You might consider yourself a senior engineer and your salary might be accurate based on the title. However, without the definitions of job levels, you might be a lead engineer according to engineersalary.com and therefore are underpaid.

udpolo15 said:

The problem with engineersalary.com is that they don't define what each job level means. When looking at salary, you really need to compare the job itself, not just the title.
Joe you say it is accurate for you but how do you know. You might consider yourself a senior engineer and your salary might be accurate based on the title. However, without the definitions of job levels, you might be a lead engineer according to engineersalary.com and therefore are underpaid.

Click to expand...

It's accurate for me by just selecting "engineer" as job level, B.S. degree, number of years experience, primary skill, consulting-corporate practice, company size and location. It might not be as I move up and call myself a senior engineer and stuff like you were saying. I've only been out of school 2 years this spring, so I knew not to select Senior, haha