The Engineering Profession

STEPHEN J. MRAZ | Senior Editor

stephen.mraz@penton.com

MACHINE DESIGNs 2013

SALARY SURVEY
Working engineers are doing well, averaging almost $93,000 in annual compensation and unemployment is lower than the national average.

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his years salary survey gathered compensation data, as well as information on perks, from over 5,000 engineers. Overall, it painted a picture of the engineering profession as one where members are well paid, earning an average of almost $93,000. But the average bump in salary of 1.57% over last year shows that even engineers continue to feel the effects of an economy trying to rebound.
COMPENSATION

Overall, engineers appear satisfied with their compensation. Almost two-thirds of the surveys respondents say their companies pay them adequately. But there are always those who want more money. We asked engineers how large a pay increase it would take before they felt they were fairly paid. Almost one in 10 said it would take a 50% raise, and four out of 10

said the raise would need to be between 6 and 15%. On average, engineers indicated a 20% bump would be fair. Of course, compensation involves more than just take-home pay. The economy, however, seems to be taking a toll on benefits as well. For example, just 57% of engineers receive health-care benefits. Another benefit that was once widespread is employer-matching of 401(k) contributions. Only 54% of engineers enjoy this perk. Companies offer other retirement-oriented bennies such as stock options (10% of respondents say they have these), stock-purchasing plans (9% have them), and pension plans (18% still have these). In fact, a little more than a quarter of the engineers responding said their company is not funding any part of their retirement. Other popular perks include time off (39%), educational programs (20%), company-paid dues

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MACHINE DESIGN

The Engineering Profession

WHICH TYPES OF ENGINEERS ARE HARD TO FIND AND HIRE? Some of the popular answers in the Other category include chemical, project, metallurgical, and biomedical engineers. Engineer type (%) Analog Software Systems Embedded RF Digital Mechanical Power Other
Executive/operating management Engineering management

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT YOUR COMPENSATION TO BE IN 2013? Most engineers make much more than the average salary in the U.S., which is a little over $44,000. According to our survey, the average engineering salary is $92,900. Compensation ($1,000s) 300 or more 200 to 299 150 to 199 125 to 149 % of respondents 1 1.7 5.7 9.3 17.4 10.1 11.6 11.2 8.5 7.1 4.9 3.3 8.3

HOW DOES THIS YEARS COMPENSATION COMPARE TO LAST YEARS? Engineers will scrape by with an average expected pay increase of 1.6%. This figure includes the decrease that almost 11% of the engineers expect and the 37% who foresee no change at all. Compensation ($1,000s) Increase by 10 or more Increase by 8 to 9 Increase by 6 to 7 Increase by 4 to 5 Increase by 2 to 3 Increase by 1 Stay the same Drop by 1 Drop by 2 to 3 Drop by 4 to 5 Drop by 6 to 7 Drop by 8 to 9 Drop by 10 or more % of respondents 9.4 1.7 1.8 10.1 24.9 4.5 0.5 0.5 1.9 2.1 0.6 0.7 5.0

Respondents 40.6 38.3 36.9 32.8 30.6 28.5 26.6 26 10.7

8.5%

11.8%

WHAT IS YOUR PRINCIPAL JOB FUNCTION? The survey asked about job functions and job titles. Over 20% of the respondents said 60.2% their titles were design, project, or R&D engineer; almost 13% said they carried chief, senior, lead, or principal engineer,; and 14% said they are presidents, owners, CEOs, or partners.
Design & development engineering

100 to 124 90 to 99 80 to 89 70 to 79 60 to 69 50 to 59 40 to 49 30 to 39 Below 30

19.6%

Other engineering

for professional organizations (16%), and a company-paid phone (15%). One program that does not seem widespread among engineers is day care or a day-care subsidy. Only 1.3% of the respondents claim their employers offer this option. However, its possible many respondents are not aware of benefits in this area as only 2.2% of the engineers who filled out the survey are female. With regards to education, companies support their engineers ongoing training in different ways. The two most common are sending engineers to trade shows and conferences, which 58% of respondents take advantage of, and attending seminars, which 56% have access to. But respondents noted that travel to seminars and trade shows is half of what it was five to 10years ago. One reason:

Companies apparently put more emphasis on online training, which 26% of the engineers receive. The other two most widespread training practices are aid with college tuition (44%) and reimbursement for engineering textbooks (34%). Only about 4% of engineers say their employers give no assistance with training.
JOB STATUS

Most of this years survey respondents are design engineers (60%), followed by engineering managers (12%), and executive/operational managers (9%). Many in the Other category are consultants, educators, field engineers, marketing/sales, QA, or unemployed. The vast maj or it y of t he eng ine ers responding work full time (78%), with about

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MACHINE DESIGN

The Engineering Profession

WHAT TYPES OF EDUCATION DOES YOUR COMPANY PAY FOR? Besides those listed above, a few engineers (less than 1%) also receive help from their employers in getting their PE licenses, and others (about 2%) receive no help at all. Educational format Seminars Trade show/conferences College tuition Engineering textbooks Engineering association dues Certifications Publication subscriptions Online training % of respondents 55.8 57.5 43.6 34.4 29.9 27.8 27.4 26

Employment Status
What Is Your
Engineers are not suffering as badly as other segments of society are from unemployment. The 2.3% who replied Other to this question include a large portion of retirees, and people out of work and looking.

Employment Status?
Self-employed

11.7%

Part time

4.6%
Contract engineer

3.2% 2.3%
Other

Full time

78.2%

What is Your Companys

Hiring Plan For Engineers?

Increase the number of engineering jobs 29% Maintain the current level 62%

12% self-employed, 3% contract workScale back the number of engineering jobs 9% ers, and almost 5% are part-timers. When we asked engineers where they put in their time, most said they spent Is your company finding enough engineers at least 40 hr at the office. Some hard chargers (13%) responded that theyre at the office for 50 or more hours. On 50.5% the other end of the scale, 12% are at the office for 20 hr or less. The telecommuting and working-athome movement doesnt seem to have gotten much traction in the engineering community. Survey respondents averaged only 9 hr/week working at home, and most of that seems to be in addition to the 40 hr profession seems to be doing well. About 30% of of office time per week. Only 9% of the engineers sur- respondents say their companies will increase the veyed spend more than 25hr at home. And a quarter number of engineering jobs; 60% say the number of engineers say they dont do any work at home. of engineering jobs at their companies will remain Many engineers seem tied to the office when it the same; and 10% feel their companies will lay off comes to work. Almost two-third of those responding engineers in the upcoming year. said they never work outside the office or home, while When asked about their organizations recruitanother 20% indicate they work 5 hr or less outside ing efforts, half said their HR departments are the office or home. On average, respondents spend having no problem filling slots. The other half said about 3 hr doing business on the road. their companies were struggling to find qualified candidates. When pressed to specify what types of ENGINEERING EMPLOYMENT engineers were hard to find, the top three answers The survey also tried to get a snapshot of cor- were analog-circuit engineers (41%), software porate hiring plans. On this front, the engineering engineers (38%), and system engineers (37%).

To Hire?
49.5%

Y es No

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MACHINE DESIGN

The Engineering Profession

To get a feeling for how companies treat engineers, we asked about measures aimed at retaining engineers and whether efforts in this area changed compared to last year. About a third of engineers said their firms did seem more interested in retaining engineers while the remaining respondents said their employers were not. Some engineers were lucky enough to work for companies that were staffing up for future growth and wanted to keep all the engineers they already had. Others said their companies had always valued experienced engineers. Still, other engineers bemoan the fact the their companies are still laying off, trying to get ever leaner. For example, one noted that: Our company has decided, per the CEO, to try to cut 5% of the workforce, based on some book that says 5% of a companys workforce is underperforming. These gimmicky approaches are cute, but dont address the real problems and only serve to hurt morale. Another observed that management blames layoffs on events like the government sequester or layoffs in unrelated industries. The slightest black cloud on the horizon results in layoffs, and its often referred to as a rightsizing, says a design engineer. Another sums up a common complaint: My company is more interested in obtaining new people than in retaining and retraining existing engineers. And a managing engineer echoes this sentiment. The focus is on hiring new people. It seems retention is assumed. Overall, 7% of the those taking the survey say they are actively seeking a new position. This number undoubtedly includes many who are out of work. Among those not looking for new jobs, about 30% would consider taking a position if they heard about an interesting opportunity. And 30% would follow-up on an offer if they were personally approached with an intriguing project or pay raise. There are also a good number (33%) who cannot envision changing jobs in the foreseeable future. On the bright side for those looking for a new position, a little over half (52%) of the respondents said they were contacted by a headhunter or recruitment specialist within the last year.

WHAT PERKS DO YOU EARN AT WORK? Engineers receive a range of perks, including health coverage, pension funds, and even memberships to health clubs. When asked to explain what they meant when they selected Other, which almost 8% did, the overwhelming response was none. This could be explained by the part-timers and contract/ consulting engineers who participated in the survey. Perk Health benefits Matching 401(k) funds Time off Further education & training Pension plan Professional organization dues Phone/fax/cable modem/DL line Tuition reimbursement Stock options Stock-purchasing plans Company car or car allowance Other Health-club membership Certification reimbursement Sabbatical/extended vacation Day care or day-care subsidy % of respondents 57.2 53.6 38.9 19.8 18.2 15.6 15.1 13 10.1 9.8 8 7.6 7.3 6.7 3.6 1.3

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