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Salary Question
5

Salary Question

Salary Question

(OP)
In the structural field, does >$80k sound right for a PE with 10-12 years of experience?  Are there many at 10-12 years making <$80k?

What about $75k-$80 for someone at 5 years?  I know that's probably a little high, but is it unheard of?

RE: Salary Question

I would think location would make a significant difference, and possibly specialty within structural engineering - low rise, high rise, bridges...

Also, whether private or public sector.

So, to get a remotely meaningful answer you might want to give a little more info.

Of course, you could also check out salary.com or similar but I'm not going to claim the values there are accurate.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
Private Sector, buildings. Single Story up to 30-story, working mostly with institutional clients and upper tier architects.  Pay is typically on the lower end of the scale, though.
In the Greater Philadelphia Region.

RE: Salary Question

In another region (midwest).  But my experience is this:
Bridge Engineer w/ 5 yrs experience 60k/65k.  So 75-80 for 5 yrs is good.  

RE: Salary Question

Seems a bit low for 10-12 years!!

Check around - Civil Engineering News and SE News has salary ranges all the time.

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
$80k is low for 10-12 years?  Good!

RE: Salary Question

every discussion of salary should also consider all other benefits in addition to location and market sector

amount paid for insurance (by employer)
employer matching contributions to 401k?
bonus?
vacation days?
sick days?
vacation / sick accumulate or roll over?
working hours (expected)

 

RE: Salary Question

Assuming cvg's points have been resolved, for salary only, $80k is on the low end for 10-12 years, but certainly not off the scale.  Quite high for 5 years experience, though.

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
Thanks for the input, guys.  

Insurance - not great, but not bad
401(k) - 3%
bonus - 2% - 4% of salary, but not always given
vacation - 3 weeks at 5 years, 4 weeks at 10 years
sick days - two per year
vacation rollover up to 4 weeks total, can't accumulate more than that
working hours - reasonably flexible, but definitely not flex-time.

 

RE: Salary Question

The benefits seem about normal -- so 80 still seems a bit low..

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
I know 80 is high for 5 years, but is it unheard of?  What about 75?

RE: Salary Question

i make $120k/hr with OT pay.  

RE: Salary Question

$120k/year (typo)

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
delagina-
How much experience do you have?  What area are you in?  What size company do you work in?  What level are you at within the company?  Is the $120k including your OT pay or that's your base salary and you get OT on top of it?  

RE: Salary Question

$120k is base salary. i also get paid OT on top of it + 401k,
 etc... petrochem/oil and gas/mining/nuclear usually pays good. fluor, bechtel, kbr, shaw, worleyparsons, jacobs are some of the companies you may try.

i've worked with some that came from infrastracture (building and bridges) and they all say there is no money there. i have a few more years of experience than you.

these industries hire 100 engineers and layoff 200 engineers though. haha.

RE: Salary Question

Quote:

Assuming cvg's points have been resolved, for salary only, $80k is on the low end for 10-12 years, but certainly not off the scale.  Quite high for 5 years experience, though.

Based on the data I have seen, I would agree with this. IMO, the easiest way to evaluate salary questions is to look at ASCE's information and talk to your peers.

Quote:

i've worked with some that came from infrastracture (building and bridges) and they all say there is no money there. i have a few more years of experience than you.

these industries hire 100 engineers and layoff 200 engineers though. haha.

This is an important point to consider in this discussion. There are definitely varying levels of compensation depending on what type of firm your work for, but it is usually commensurate with long-term stability.  In my area, industrial/oil&gas work will pay the highest, but the job stability seems to be the shakiest.  There are a couple industrial firms that are notorious for beefing up their staff to handle a large project and then cutting as soon as the work is finished.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is work for government agencies, which almost always pays the least.  Yet, the benefits package is usually superb (even Flag Day is a paid holiday!) and if you keep showing up to work you can pretty much have your job for as long as you want it.

RE: Salary Question

PA...geez..change that handle!!  Bottom line is you'll have to ask for what you want.  If it is within reason push for it.  If it is off the mark for your particular company, you'll have to change jobs to get it.  You're an engineer.....you're in a responsible, yet responsive position...no one is going to throw money at you.  If you want to make more money, the company has to be able to charge more money for your time.  Simple margin calculation.  Can they do that?  In many cases, yes.  You go from staff engineer to senior engineer to principal engineer....etc.  Each one charges more and they can do so because they're worth more (well...ok, we all see exceptions to that one!)

You've probably already given management a good excuse to bump you up.  Just nudge them over the top a bit.  Don't overvalue yourself (we do that pretty easily, particularly if we're confident of our abilities)...just try to be as factual and objective as possible.

Good luck.

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
Thanks guys.  I appreciate the input.  I wish I could give a little more input to discuss the situation in a little more detail, but I don't feel comfortable doing that in an open forum.

The information provided has been helpful, though, so thanks.

Ron - I'm still working on a new handle.

RE: Salary Question


PA...no salary increase until the handle is done.rofl

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
I give up!!  This has to do it for a handle.  I just spent 20 minutes trying to come up with something only to have everything I chose be either 1) taken, or 2) told it was an improper handle.  Only alphanumeric characters should be used.  Last I checked, letters and numbers are alphanumeric.

RE: Salary Question

Much better...chase and devour.

RE: Salary Question

Lion RawR!!!! pipe

peace
Fe

RE: Salary Question

Very, very, very dependent on the industry.  Oil/gas - higher pay.  Public works - lower pay.  For the average company $80k/year for 10 years seems about right, not low in my opinion.  My company does a variety of work so I think it pays somewhere in the middle.   

RE: Salary Question

FWIW for Australian engineers the average for a grad is 60k, 6 years postgrad 80k, 12 years  =100k.

So at least over here the relationship over the early part of your career seems pretty straightforward! Sadly the next 20k is a bit of a long wait.

 

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies  http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Salary Question

Lion06,

I agree with weab - very dependent on the size and type of structural firm. My circle of friends and I are based on the west coast (SF, San Jose, Seattle) and 80K is average for 9-12 years of experience. That is for a mid to senior level engineer with project management responsibility. This is based on a small to mid-size private consulting firm doing small to medium size projects -- not talking Bechtel/Flour/TY Lin/PB/AECom/etc (have no idea what those guys pay). For this type of private firm, 75-80K for 5 yrs experience is unheard of. Also, if you go to one of those online cost-of-living calculators and you take 75K in SF or Seattle, it is comparable to 47-52K in Philly. So based on that I would say you are doing very well for yourself, though you would probably disagree. My biggest pay raise came after switching jobs -- making 65K after 7 years of experience switched companies and got an 80K base salary. I think the only way to get a substantial raise after you have completed 4-6 years of experience and pass the PE exam is to switch companies. It is difficult to do, and often the expectations will be much higher of your new employer with the pressure to produce becoming overwhelming at times, but change can be good...

By the way, this is my very first post ever. I hope to be helpful on the technical forums...

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
Jenny-

I just checked three different cost of living comparison calculators.  The results are far different than you suggest.

I did a google search and picked off the first three comparison sites that came up.  One of them was significantly different, so I checked the fourth.  I looked at bankrate.com, bestplaces.net, cgi.money.cnn.com, and townhunter.com.  One of the sites reflected what you say above, but the other three show a required salary in Seattle (assuming 55k in Philly) of 45k - 53k.    
 

RE: Salary Question

65k after 7 years?!?!?!?  I pulled more than that my second year with overtime this is in SoCal with a small firm, current pay was not too far from that  If the current economic situation had not happen I would have been 75-80k(base) with three year under my belt no PE.  10-12 years is $100k+ is a given, PE/SE.   

RE: Salary Question

(OP)
Sandman-
Thanks for the info, that's helpful.

Do you design for any type of serviceability seismic drift out there in California (without the Cd factor) or is it just about life-safety?

Here on the east coast, seismic is all about life-safety.  I just wasn't sure if you guys out there design the elastic drift (for some shorter return period) for serviceability.

RE: Salary Question

As a general rule the code drift equation with Cd are used, I have run into a local fire department that has additional requirements for apparatus bay deflection, L/450, based on strength level elastic drift.  We have additional deflection requirements for rigid facades (L/600 for veneer) and window systems (system dependent) to help control damage.

RE: Salary Question

The $42 sounds low considering the assignment duration and the relocation (different state. Comparing to IT friends and also those who work in project controls area for construction projects, their range is between $80 - $100/hr. They have around the same years of experience. Are we cheaper?

RE: Salary Question

Never ever!
The only problem we engineers are having is that our specialized work is sometimes being given to under qualified foreigners.  "The companies don't care if the planes fall our of the sky", "We companies can hire a douch bag to press some buttons on pre programmed software and done deal". They don't care. But we do.
It's pathetic. It is actually easy to tell which companies do this. The quality of product gives it away. quirey: "Anyone can put pipe together on CAD. But only a select few can engineer the refrigeration system they are for"

Sorry for the slight rant. I really hate half ass designers that play with their ba!!s and call themselves an engineer.  

peace
Fe

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