Since EE began conducting salary surveys in 1993, only one thing is predictable—all things change. Statistics that show an increase from one year to the next will decrease the third year and vice versa.
Maybe it’s our fast-changing electronics industry that influences the economy. Or maybe it’s downsizing. Nearly all companies experience some form of downsizing. Some companies are in the throws of downsizing now while others have undergone the effects and are emerging with new directions for their employees.
Let’s start by looking at the overall median salary. The outlook in 1995 was bright with an increase of almost 14% over the 1994 median salary. Then, although small, the 1996 overall median salary was down roughly 2.5%.
So you can almost guess what happened this year. Right, the median salary is up 14.3%, or at $60,000. This significant increase is good news for the engineering profession in general. And it is in line with the current overall economic climate in the United States.
But there is much more to look at in the big picture. Are you satisfied with your career and secure in your job?
First, let’s show you how we got these numbers. Questionnaires were mailed to 2,000 EE subscribers in January. No incentives were offered to encourage participation. When the deadline arrived, we had 16.2% that provided us with usable information. Here’s their answers.
Once again this year, salaries computed by geographical region are an enigma (Table 1, see below). The areas with decreases in 1996 indicate increases of at least 10% in 1997. The areas with increases last year show modest drops of up to 5% in 1997.
| Salary by Geography | |
| Region | Median Salary |
| Pacific | $ 65,000 |
| Mountain | $ 61,250 |
| Central | $ 55,000 |
| Northeast | $ 60,000 |
| Southeast | $ 49,300 |
While noteworthy, a salary breakdown by geography is not the only criteria used to help you zero in on how you match up to others with the same job and education. Of the professionals who responded to the survey, nearly 26% are in Design/Development Engineering, followed by 14.7% in Corporate Management, 13.8% in Manufacturing/Production Engineering and 12.5% in QC/QA/Reliability/Product Assurance.
To compare these professions and a few others that make up the bulk of the responses, Table 2 (see below) shows the median salaries for 1995, 1996 and 1997. In four of these categories, the 1997 median salary is higher than it was in either 1995 or 1996. R&D and Scientific held its own in 1997 after slipping from a $59,000 median in 1995. For the second consecutive year, field service personnel lost ground.
| Salary by Job Function | |||
| Job Function | 1995 Median | 1996 Median | 1997 Median |
| Design / Development Eng. | $ 60,700 | $ 55,000 | $ 61,000 |
| Field Service | $ 51,000 | $ 50,000 | $ 45,000 |
| Manufacturing / Production Eng. | $ 57,000 | $ 50,000 | $ 59,000 |
| Production Test | $ 47,000 | $ 45,000 | $ 57,500 |
| QC / QA / Reliability | $ 54,000 | $ 51,000 | $ 60,450 |
| R & D / Scientific | $ 59,000 | $ 55,000 | $ 55,000 |
| Salary by Level of Education | |||
| Level of Education | 1996 Median | 1997 Median | Change |
| Associates Degree | $ 46,225 | $ 49,000 | 6.0% |
| B.S.E.E. | $ 52,000 | $ 55,500 | 6.7% |
| Other B.S. Degrees | $ 58,500 | $ 59,500 | 1.7% |
| B.A. | $ 55,000 | $ 68,000 | 23.6% |
| M.S.E.E. | $ 60,000 | $ 62,950 | 4.9% |
| M.B.A. | $ 62,500 | $ 82,200 | 31.5% |
| Ph.D. | $ 70,000 | $ 82,200 | 17.4% |
Obviously, experience impacts your salary. What is less obvious is the drop in pay if you have been employed 20 to 24 years in the profession. When this trend occurred in two previous surveys, we thought it was a fluke. But the third consecutive anomaly got our attention.
If you are in the industry three to five years, your median salary is $49,650, up more than $10,000 over the last 12 months. Then there is a steady increase to $50,000 for six to nine years in the industry and $50,200 for 10 to 14 years. If you are in the 15- to 19-year group, your median salary is $60,000, which has not changed from last year.
But for those of you with 20 to 24 years of experience, the median drops to $55,000. Speculation on this topic varies. Perhaps it is the time when engineers who really enjoy the technical challenges of their jobs elect to stay in the engineering field and their counterparts seeking managerial positions take separate paths. The engineers remain at a more constant pay while, after a few years of experience, the new managers begin to march higher on the pay scale.
For 25 to 29 years, the median salary is $71,000; those who stick it out for 30 or more years earn $69,000. Table 4, see below, shows even more information on how salaries fare when compared to years in the industry.
| Salary by Years of Experience | ||||||
| Percentiles | ||||||
| Years of Experience | Median Salary | 10% | 25% | 50% | 75% | 90% |
| < 3 years | $ 48,000 | $ 39,000 | $ 41,330 | $ 48,000 | $ 68,450 | $ 70,000 |
| 3 – 5 years | $ 49,650 | $ 34,700 | $ 39,500 | $ 49,650 | $ 62,500 | $ 74,100 |
| 6 – 9 years | $ 50,000 | $ 36,680 | $ 42,050 | $ 50,000 | $ 61,500 | $ 69,400 |
| 10 – 14 years | $ 50,200 | $ 37,000 | $ 42,000 | $ 50,200 | $ 62,100 | $ 73,000 |
| 15 – 19 years | $ 60,000 | $ 40,000 | $ 50,250 | $ 60,000 | $ 72,500 | $ 90,000 |
| 20 – 24 years | $ 55,000 | $ 36,800 | $ 43,000 | $ 55,000 | $ 77,600 | $ 89,400 |
| 25 – 29 years | $ 71,000 | $ 48,000 | $ 62,250 | $ 71,000 | $ 87,850 | $ 102,000 |
| 30+ years | $ 69,000 | $ 46,000 | $ 57,500 | $ 69,000 | $ 89,000 | $ 100,000 |
While on the subject of time spent on the job, let’s look at the amount of overtime you work. More than 80% of you say that working overtime is a way of life these days. On average, you work about 10 hours extra each week. And the pay is not great-77% of you do not receive additional money for these extra hours.
Now that we have discussed the hard facts relating to salary, let’s address the far more subjective areas of job and career satisfaction and job security. About 39% of you are satisfied with your current job, down four points from last year. If you are very satisfied with your job, you are in the 33% category, up from 25% in 1996. Those of you only somewhat satisfied with your job number 23%, almost the same as last year. If you are not satisfied with your job, you share that opinion with slightly more that 5%, down 2% from 1996.
Job is one thing, but satisfaction with your career is something far more serious. After all, you have invested time, effort and money in this career. A little more than 29% are very satisfied with your career choice, up from 25% last year. About one-third of you are satisfied with your career, down from 48% in 1996. Nearly 35% are somewhat satisfied and 2.8% of you are not satisfied with your choice of careers.
So how secure are you in your job? According to W. Michael Cox of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in a recent Business Week article, many of the companies that emerged from downsizing are “able to provide greater security for their remaining workers.” How true it that for our survey respondents?
Approximately 42% say you are very secure in your present job, 48% are somewhat secure and 10% are not secure at all. Do you feel better today about your job than a year ago? A total of 39% says yes, 33% say no and 28% say nothing has changed in the past year to make them either more or less secure in their current position.
Where Do We Go From Here?
With the information we gathered from the salary survey this year, we made some comparisons and observations. Perhaps you can gain some valuable insights about where you stand in the industry. One respondent told us that he received a 12% increase in pay after EE‘s 1996 Salary Survey was published. Hopefully, this article will be as helpful to you.
All contents © 2004 Nelson Publishing
April 1997