Engineers in the South Atlantic (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington,
D.C.) averaged $106,163. Their colleagues in the Mid-Atlantic
(New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland)
were next on the list, averaging $104,623 and edging out engineers
in the East South Central states (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi,
and Tennessee) at $104,451.
Trailing the field were engineers in the West North Central
states (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Nebraska, and Kansas), with an average income of $98,299, and
the East North Central states (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio,
and Wisconsin), where total earnings averaged $94,782. One
positive note: average engineering incomes were up in every
region this year.
Engineers who design chips for a living once again took home
the most pay in 2008, averaging $135,050 in total compensation—
including an industry-leading base salary of $122,030, plus $5220
in bonus money and another $7800 in stock options and other
incentives. Rounding out the top five wage earners this year are
computer product designers ($130,308), medical device designers
($116,782), avionics systems designers ($111,190), and military
systems designers ($108,415).
Not surprisingly, engineering experience usually translates into
higher pay. The older you are, the more you make (although at age
55 salaries begin to tail off). And if you haven’t already done so,
our survey confirms that it’ll pay for you to go back to school and
add some graduate courses to your bachelor’s degree.
Engineering continues to be significantly less financially
rewarding for women than for men, despite the fact that men
and women hold similar jobs and have similar education, and
women took a significant hit in bonuses this year. Male engineers
currently average $97,495 in base salary (+3.6%) and $9237 in
bonuses and other income (+2.5%) for a total compensation of
$106,732 (+3.5%).
Women, by comparison, average just $78,629 in base salary
(+2.4) and $7118 in bonuses and other income (–16%), totaling
$85,747—meaning total income was flat in 2008 and widening
the income disparity with men to more than 24%. So after several
years of seeing the salary gap narrowing year-over-year, for the
second year the gap has widened.
Engineers are working longer hours than ever—54 hours a
week when you factor in work at other locations (including home)
and time spent on call. That represents an hour more on the job
than a year ago. The good news is that longer hours usually translate
into bigger paychecks. “There is always potential for career
path and salary advancement if one is willing to work hard and pay
attention to the broader trends and can be adaptable to new types
of jobs,” stated one engineer.
“For instance, opportunities in the ‘green’ sector are growing
rapidly,” the reader continued. “It’s kind of like diversifying your
investment portfolio. The more roles you have experience with
within a business, the more marketable you are. If, however, one
intends to stay in one type of engineering role throughout their
career, the outlook continues to get more and more bleak in this
country.”
The number of engineers receiving health benefits from their
employers decreased from 67% to 62% in 2008, and the fact that
salary increases are being overshadowed by rising healthcare costs
continues to be a common grievance among engineers. “Health
insurance costs keep increasing,” complained one engineer. “We’ve
been through a many year salary freeze and have only been receiving
increases for the past couple years. But performance-based
incentive programs have been introduced and are appreciated.”
In exchange for bigger paychecks, companies have started to
cut back on other indirect cash rewards like 401(k) match plans,
pension plans, and tuition reimbursement. “Benefit cuts continue
to increase every year,” grumbled one engineer.
“Over the past six years, we’ve seen a steady erosion of our
benefit package while salary growth has been erratic,” the reader
added. “Large staffing reductions have already been made with
more looming in the future. Some of the cuts are characterized as
temporary but appear to be permanent. Morale is horrible and the
future outlook is not one of growth or stabilization.”
HOW YOU'LL RETIRE
This year, we also took a look at how engineers are planning for
their retirement. According to the survey, 13% said they’ll never
retire and 16% aren’t sure when they’ll give up working. “By observation
I decided that retirement is most often a fatal mistake,” said
one engineer. “Retirement takes away the ability to enjoy the assets
that working allowed. It is unhealthy to suddenly divorce yourself
from what you really want to do. I don’t know of anybody that
survived it for more than a few months. If you want to stay alive
you have to keep your hand in something useful to others.”
Those with retirement on their minds typically plan to hang it
up at age 65, but nearly four in 10 say this is later than the age at
which they’d planned to retire. For some, the reasons were positive.
“A few years ago, there would have been more advantages in my
personal life to being retired, and at that time my professional life
was good, but not as good as it is now,” commented one.
“For the past couple years, I’ve been working on a project
that was just about ideal for me, and the product, recently
released, is getting rave reviews,” the reader continued. “For
the next year or two or three, I expect to be working on some things
that will be even more mentally challenging and lead to even
cooler products.”
But for most engineers, the reasons were related more to financial
issues and concerns. “The cost of living has outpaced salary
increases for several years, especially regarding housing and education
expenses. Additionally, the uncertainties and weaknesses in
the evolving global economy have made it extremely difficult to
gauge how much retirement income will be necessary, not to mention
the uncertainty of whether Social Security will exist in a form
that offers the same level of benefits that we had been led to expect
years ago,” one reader said.
“And medical costs have skyrocketed, and the need to provide
an ample cushion for medical expenses in retirement has forced
many to commit to working more years just to be able to retire
with the appropriately sized nest egg,” the reader added, reflecting
the views of many readers.