I posted this in a couple other threads, but it is relevant to this one especially> I received the following from Langer regarding their pay survey of ASME members. Based on this it appears that at least mechanical engineers that are members of the ASME are doing pretty well! Junior engineer has a median salary of $50000. That has got to be better than a cell phone salesman.....
This unique, 576-page publication reports the base salaries, other cash compensation, and total cash compensation of 8,963 members of ASME.
Nationwide, the median income of survey participants is $83,236.
The median income of some of the benchmark jobs investigated
were:
Research Director/Vice President ... $135,000
"Distinguished" Researcher ... $131,000
College/University Dept. Heads (11-12 mo. appt.) ...$125,000 Engineering Director/Vice President ... $123,100 Professor (11-12 month appointment) ... $120,000 Chief Marketing & Sales Executive ... $113,700 Environmental Manager ... $110,000 Consulting Branch Manager ... $103,500 Principal Consultant ... $102,000 Project Manager ... $95,000 Senior Engineer ... $84,000 Sales Representative ... $77,775 Intermediate Researcher ... $70,000 Project Engineer ... $63,775 Junior Researcher ... $50,047 Junior Engineer ... $50,000 Junior Consultant ... $42,700