Salary in California

[SF_century]

A Structural engineer with 7 years of experience. Working toward PE license (passed national). What is the meadian salary? My research shows with a pe in the bay area you should be in the $40-45 per hour range. Does anyone have feedback on this?

 

[ruskyline]

Sounds a bit too high. Here in Los Angeles area, you got to have PE and be a really good designing to get that rate. But again, Bay area everything is super expensive so I wouldn't know.

 

[Stardust]

I was always under the impression that CA salary is below national average after being adjusted for standard of living.

 

[munyua44]

maybe you might be right because the standards of living in CA are very high. Although that salary per hour is way too high. I dont know now

 

[Abbie]

Honestly that seems low to me, but I'd check the ASCE salary report. I'm a Civil EIT in North Carolina and make $39/hr. Granted, it's RDU so it's one of the most expensive areas in NC, but nothing like the bay area. That's a big reason why we moved.

 

[MambaMentality24]

Here's a link to the SE3 project. You can check out the 2016 pay report.
http://www.se3project.org/seaonc-se3-publications.html

 

[East coast Engineer]

I guess in general you are better off working in construction than in design if you compare the salaries between the two trades and this seems true here in the bay area.

 

[munyua44]

I guess in general you are better off working in construction than in design if you compare the salaries between the two trades and this seems true here in the bay area.

what about if someone decides to settle for self-employment? what is your advice on that?

 

[Diego26]

I’ve been in the building code admin industry for over 20 years. The industry is hurting bad right now, especially in the LA county area. It was hard to find good plan check or inspection staff before COVID. It’s gotten worse now with experienced engineers retiring. There’s been a big turn over everywhere. If you have your CA PE with a plan check cert, you’ll have a a great chance in the code admin industry. Design experience is a big plus but a lot of consulting firms are willing to train. A plan check engineer with a PE can easily make over $100k salary. The cost of living is high in the city but there’s a trade off…..and depends where you want to be.

 

[fyrfytr310]

I'm baffled median salaries aren't $100k+ in your area. In the circles I run, in Ohio of all places, most engineers are over the six figure threshold a few years out of school.

How can anybody afford to live in California?

Sorry, rant over and I know I didn't contribute much...

 

[plainjane]

Realizing now that the original post was from 2015 - ignore my comment. How do these posts get dragged up from 6-7 years in the past? Haha.

I work in San Diego and have my PE, but before I had my license I was making approx. $45 an hour with a few years of experience. I would say depending on what kind of work you're doing you should definitely be in that range, especially with 7 years of experience.

 

[East coast Engineer]

what about if someone decides to settle for self-employment? what is your advice on that?

Working for yourself is always better I guess but you need to have some connections to get you work