The economy is slowly rebounding, and engineers have cause to celebrate. After not budging for years, their salaries have increased for the second year in a row, according to our annual survey. And the positive news does not stop there. The average bonus has also increased, and job satisfaction is at an all-time high.
This year, the average engineer is making $96,813 per year, versus $93,465 last year. Sixty-nine percent of engineers have had an increase in their base annual salary from 2011. Only 2 percent have experienced a decrease in pay, which is down from last year's 4 percent. The remaining 29 percent of engineers said their pay remained the same.
The average expected bonus this year is $11,906. Last year's average was $9,440. Seventy-two percent of engineers said their bonus will stay the same, while 16 percent said it will increase from last year.
Engineers working in the Southwest (Calif., Nev., and Ariz.) are bringing in the most money: an average of $110,101 per year. Those working in New England (Me., N.H., VT, Mass., R.I., and Conn.) come in second, with $106,846. Engineers in the Midwest (Mich., Ohio, Ken., Tenn., Ind., Wis., Ill., Iowa, Mo., N.D., S.D., Neb., and Kan.) bring up the rear, with $88,838. The only other region where engineers are not breaking six figures is the Southeast (N.C., S.C., Ga., and Fla.), with $94,350.
Your job discipline will adjust the amount of money you are bringing in. Engineers working in electronics make the most annually; their average salary and bonus come in at $110,782. Software engineers are a very close second, with $110,661.
The semiconductor industry offers the highest average salary ($115,772) and an average bonus of $17,546. The defense systems industry comes in second, with an average salary of $109,797 and an average bonus of $13,988.
Since you spend the majority of your time at work, it is important to enjoy what you do for a living. Luckily, 56 percent are extremely or very satisfied with their design engineering career. Factors that contribute to satisfaction in the workplace include problem solving, technical challenges, and the opportunity to be creative. More specifically, the engineers we surveyed cited continuous learning, being able to make real products, interfacing with people from other countries, and developing products that help people as reasons they are satisfied with their career.
I find this article disturbing. I mean of course the guys making the most money are the happiest. I disagree with that though. Also, only what %56 are actually happy with their jobs. That's crazy. I would rather make less and be happy at work instead of getting paid more and hating every day. Maybe that's just me. I've always worked for small firms and made less, but I was happy. I tried some big firms, but was just lost in the fold. I guess I don't fit into this "survey".
Yes, that's a mess, Jijoh123. My little borther teaches at a small college in rural Indiana. It's amazing how wealthy he is on a professor's salary in that area of the country. A Stanford professor would be way behind in standard of living.
I agree. When a job pays say $80K and a home in the Midwest area is oh, say $125K (1.56:1 cost to salary ratio); a comparable job in Silicon Valley may pay $125K with a "less than comparable home" costing more than $500K (resulting in a 4.17:1 cost to salary ratio). That's not even taking into account the much higher taxes and insurance premiums. HOA also if it's a Condo or in a controlled community can add $200-$400 to the monthly liability you will be subject to (these figures overall are being somewhat optimistic). And if you just want to rent, $1500-$2500 per month for 2Bdrms in a halfway decent neighborhood. Add to that the weekly "Friday Rush" to leave the city, taking sometimes 6 to 7 hours just to go the first 40-50 miles to get out of the "blast radius"... It just does not make sense to me, as I've been there and done that. We discovered the only way to leave the city to go anywhere on any weekend was to plan on a "before noon" departure. Even then traffic was always heavy with best average speeds on the freeway at 15-40 MPH. The theme song from "Green Acres" still rings in my mind when I think about the sum total of 14 years I spent there. I've said enough already.
Good point, Jijoh123. That could explain the much-higher salaries on the West Coast. When it comes down to it, the much-lower salaries in the Midwest might be a good deal. Housing costs in the Midwest are very low these days.
The fact that the cost of living (housing, rent, utilities etc.) is still unrealistically high when compared to the compensations offered isn't helping. I grew up there and left because it was just to expensive to live there (multi-famly mortgages are a telling sign), work the expected 60-70 hours a week and have a real life. I want to work to live, not live to work.
I took Lauren's advice and downloaded the full survey. I now recognize that these salary averages are high because it is HIGHLY populated with salaries of engineers with over 20 yrs experience -- perhaps the flip side of your concern, Rudy, would be a lack of repsonses from less experienced engineers! Although the qty of respondents per region is not mentioned, I'd also suspect the largest block of data comes from CA-AZ-NV, therein also skewing the stated national averages towards high dollar figures.
If nearly half of respondents work for companies with fewer than 100 employees, and only 1/3 of respondents work for companies with more than 500 employees, how can the average be 750?
Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see any mention of how or if the vast number of currently unemployed engineers (myself, for 21 months, among them) may have skewed these results.
Good point, Beth. I've also heard about widespread shortages of automation and control engineers. I remember there was great relief in the plant operation world when the recession (and falling 401Ks) caused boomer engineers to postpone retirement.
We're talking software engineers, though, not mechanical or electrical. I think that's a huge opportunity for employment prospects. Same for embedded software engineers or developers.
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