You Get More Money If You Wear Cleats

Roger Clemens, the veteran pitcher for the Yankees, will bring in $15,450,000 this year, but fellow pitchers Mike Hampton of the Colorado Rockies, Kevin Brown with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Mike “Moose” Mussina, a Yankee, average just $15,000,000 each. Is this fair? If so, can we extrapolate one step further and justify the plight of the average baseball player who earns just $2.1 million or the bottom-of-the-stack guy earning the $200,000 minimum?

None of us worries about inequities on the baseball diamond. We know that you get a lower salary if you don’t wear cleats, and we understand that each player in professional sports negotiates the best deal possible.

The pay scale for creative employees in the electronics industry is much, much lower than that in major league baseball. The question for each of us is not “How does my salary compare with the baseball superstars?” but rather “How do I stack up against my counterparts in the electronics industry?”.

We asked many of you, our readers, to share salary and related information with us. A total of 732 responded, and we talked to several of you to get more details. These are our findings for 2002.

The Median Professional

The median professional who responded to the survey is a male (men provided 97% of the responses) with a B.S.E.E. (33%) and working on the West Coast (25%). His salary is $75,000 per year. (Incidentally, Rodriguez gets twice this amount for every Texas Rangers game.) The median electronics professional works for a company with more than 1,000 employees (32%). He has a nonsupervisory position (as does 51%) and is a design and development engineer (34%). He is not enrolled in a continuing education program although 45% of those who responded are in professional studies to expand job skills. This engineer goes to seminars that relate to his work (89% went to them) and has attended at least one trade show or electronics conference in the past year (61% did so).

This professional is 43 years old and has worked in the electronics industry for about 20 years. At the present job about seven years, he has access to the Internet at work and at home (92% had both) and spends about six hours on it each week. The most important use of the Internet is the collection of information on products, and the second is retrieval of technical information. E-mail is third in importance, followed by researching competitor details and downloading software. Last on the list is job searching.

We found wide variations in salary among our respondents. No doubt some of the salary differences relate to competency level, business conditions, or personality factors, and it isn’t possible to evaluate these from responses to a questionnaire. However, several easily defined factors seem to contribute to different pay structures. These include education, geographic location, job function, and the length of time a person has been in the electronics industry.

Differentiators

Education Generally, education is a significant differentiator in the salary structure. The typical employee with an associates degree or technical schooling makes about $15,000 less than one with a B.S.E.E. (Figure 1). Even the employee with a B.S. in a discipline other than electronics engineering (EE) is likely to experience a $10,000 shortfall as compared to his EE counterpart. A master’s in EE brings a $6,000 increase, the Ph.D. adds another $1,500, and the employee with the M.B.A. typically is in corporate management and commands the highest median salary of all: $85,000.

Geographic Area “Go West, young man, go West!” John Soule wrote that in 1851, and Horace Greeley repeated it again and again. The electronics professional who heeded this advice is likely to be higher paid than his colleagues in other parts of the country (Figure 2). Those in the mountain, southeastern, and northeastern regions get progressively lower salaries, while the ones in the central part of the United States are at the bottom of the stack, earning $14,000 less than the $80,000 median salary on the West Coast.

Job Function Understandably, a person’s primary job function is a significant salary differentiator. Those in corporate management lead the way with a median salary of $87,250 (Figure 3). They are followed by design and development engineers at $75,000. The other jobs bring less money, with calibration at the bottom of the list with a median salary of $50,000.

Years in the Industry In general, salary increases as you spend more time in the industry (Figure 4). The median pay in the first three years is $57,800, and it increases incrementally to $79,000 in the 25- to 29-year time period. After 30 years, there is a drop-off of about $4,000. For engineers with a B.S.E.E., there is an even greater differentiation. The starting years bring $48,000, with increases to a maximum of $87,000. This decreases to $80,000 after 30 years of employment.

Job Security Brings Satisfaction

Business slowdowns, exacerbated by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have caused many electronics people to contemplate their job security. Some lost their jobs in 2001, and others wonder if they will survive until conditions improve.

A case in point is Steven Heuser, who experienced a 100% decrease in salary. He has a B.S.E.E. and for six years was a production test engineer at Plexus, a contract manufacturer in Neenah, WI. He saw the business level drop, and several friends lost their jobs as a result.

Like Mr. Heuser when he responded to our first inquiry, about 15% of the respondents are glad to have their jobs, but don’t feel secure in them. On the brighter side, 57% of the engineering professionals are somewhat secure and 28% very secure.

The uncertainties following corporate mergers take a toll on job security. Jeff Pagor is in his late 30s, has a B.S.E.E. and an M.B.A., and manages a production test group for Packard Bioscience in Downers Grove, IL. He loves his job and has no intention of leaving this manufacturer of medical instruments. But, he wonders if the company is leaving him. It merged with Perkin Elmer Life Sciences, a much larger corporation, and decisions affecting his future could be made by people who never met him.

Mr. Pagor feels that a company gets the maximum yield from an engineer by establishing clear goals, then evaluating the results. As a manager, he looks to corporate management for his direction, then translates this into individual goals for his group.

Gerald Clubine with Siemens Applied Automation in Bartlesville, OK, is just three years from retirement. This engineer is satisfied with all aspects of his work, including his compensation. He likes new and challenging assignments and receives fabulous support from his boss.

A 31-year-old design and development engineer at Honeywell in Columbia, MD, Brian Heslep is “very satisfied,” and has no doubt that his job is secure. This is attributed to his division’s long-term contract for communications equipment and the company’s policy on continuing education. Like many other corporations, Honeywell allocates money for studies that will enhance the employee’s career, recognizing that both the company and the engineer benefit from such training.

Two design and development engineers in California have sharply contrasting stories. The first, whom we will call Pete, has been with TRW since receiving his B.S. almost a quarter of a century ago. Even though Pete likes his job, his salary is below the median for his location. He feels underpaid for the work he does and is actively looking for another position.

This contrasts with Jim, who holds the same title at The Walt Disney Company in Anaheim, CA. He, too, has been with his employer since receiving a B.S.E.E. almost 20 years ago. However, Jim couldn’t be happier with his work and feels more secure than a year ago. Abe Fanaeian, production test engineer at Intel’s Redondo Beach, CA, facility, is continuing his technical education through correspondence courses. He likes his job but is searching for the most rewarding upward path in the company. With an M.S.E.E., his qualifications for a technical career at the company are well established. However, at the age of 50, he wonders if management would be more satisfying.

As you might expect, an engineering manager who is part owner of his company has a somewhat unique perspective on job security. Richard Fiutem, manager of design and development at Harrison (OH) Technology, is very satisfied with his job and feels quite secure in it. One of his goals is to give his employees the same protected feeling.

Harrison Technology, a relatively small company, is primarily a contract-engineering house specializing in communications software. This makes each engineering employee an extension of the sales department, dealing with customers directly. Such responsibility enhances the value of the self-starter who is not afraid to get involved in other aspects of the operation. Such employees have job security and good compensation.

“We can offer the good engineers more than money,” Mr. Fiutem said. “We allow them to develop valuable job skills that they wouldn’t get in a Fortune 500 Company. Job hunters shouldn’t let an attractive salary offer distract them from the value of the overall package.”

Pragmatism has its place in the engineering profession. About 20% of the respondents expect no salary increase this year, and more than half foresee no greater than a 4% increase. However, this is not a major concern for some. Most of our respondents are happy in their specific jobs. Only 8% expressed outright dissatisfaction, with 31% at the other end of the scale—very satisfied.

Does Salary Really Matter?

After all this talk about salaries, we wondered how much they really affect an engineer’s happiness. We turned first to an engineer with the Kingston Company in Smithville, TN, who has an M.S.E.E., is paid well above the median salary as a design engineer, and is satisfied with his job and career.

Mr. Sokalski was an engineering manager for several years, but recognized that for him the frustrations of personnel and budgets took most of the fun out of the job. He said, “Every engineer should be honest in self-analysis, and this isn’t easy.

Don’t be diverted by assignments that do not suit your needs and abilities. Don’t let salary considerations keep you away from the position that will fulfill the needs of your inner self.”

Another engineer who expressed satisfaction with his job and career was Thomas Ventress, manager of a large group of engineers involved in computer-controlled test of a variety of refurbished avionics systems at Warner Robins Air Force Base, GA. Mr. Ventress spent more than 20 years in private industry before starting his civil-service career in 1984 and has found satisfaction in both arenas.

We asked Mr. Ventress what a young engineer should look for when considering new employment. “Search for the opportunity to innovate. Most people go into engineering because they want to develop new products or techniques, and if the job gives you this opportunity, you’ll be happy. Salary considerations will take care of themselves.”

David Pfeifer, an engineer for Motorola in Little Rock, AR, for the past 10 years, is well paid as compared to many of his counterparts. However, he didn’t take the job for the money, but rather for the opportunity to grow in his chosen career.

“A previous employment paid a good salary,” he commented, “but gave no path for growth. I got out of there when it became obvious that I was not moving forward in my career.” Mr. Pfeifer is working on his master’s in computer science, sensing that this will give him still more job satisfaction.

What does an engineer in his mid-40s do when his employer of more than two decades sells the division? Salary takes a back seat to job security, and there are many farewell parties for good people. This is where Thomas Huetti found himself recently. The Motorola division for which he worked in Phoenix became ON Semiconductor, and he was forced to evaluate the situation to see where he would be of the greatest value.

Mr. Huetti is manager of a small engineering group, doing applications work and product engineering for MOSFETs. He isn’t terribly happy with the present conditions but hopes for more responsibility and pay as the company moves into new business areas. He was a technician for many years while he earned his B.S.E.E. and, consequently, has more hands-on experience than most semiconductor engineers. He’s taking after-hours courses to prepare himself for project management.

April 2002