Salaries
Professional Engineers are well paid - chartered engineer status is a solid foundation for a well remunerated career. Typically, the comparative salary levels of practising professional engineers (i.e., those not yet in management or company director positions) from the highest down are:
- Chemical Engineering
- Electrical/Electronic Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Production Engineering
Current engineering graduate starting salaries are in the range £25,000 - £35,000 depending upon discipline and industry sector.
Salary Survey - Engineering Council
The Engineering Council's “Survey of Registered Engineers 2013“ (published in January 2014) incorporates its latest salary survey of the Engineering Profession and identifies the following trends in chartered engineer (the highest professional engineering level) salaries. (Note the increases in recent years.)
Chartered Engineer Salaries
| 2007 | 2010 | 2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Basic Earnings (Excluding overtime or bonuses) (50% of basic earnings are above this figure and 50% are below) | 48000 | 52609 | 60000 |
| Median Annual Total Earnings | 50000 | 55000 | 63000 |
| Mean Total Annual Earnings (the overall average earnings) | 55870 | 67714 | 73297 |
| Energy (including oil and gas) Mean Annual Basic Earnings |
------ | 80000 | 92000 |
The 2013 Survey Overall Mean Basic Earnings data shows that;
50% earned above £60,000
14% earned above £100000
Note that the chartered engineers who replied to the salary survey work not only in the UK but all over the world and the salary figures above reflect this.
The following are the mean (average) basic incomes based on work location:
| England | Scotland | Wales | N Ireland | Abroad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean Annual Basic Income | 62960 | 65268 | 49218 | 44686 | 105914 |
Note that salaries for those located in Scotland are the highest in the UK. This reflects the influence of the North Sea oil and gas sector.
The Report confirms that the proportion of Chartered Engineers earning £50,000 or more in 2007 was 48% and has grown by 2013 to 50% earning more than £60,000.
In addition the Mean Total Earnings for Chartered Engineers rose on average 32% between the 2007 and 2013 salary surveys which is around twice the total level of economic inflation in the period (approx 2.5% per year) every year for the previous 6 years. This shows that Chartered Engineering salaries have very significantly outstripped inflation in recent years.
The Survey confirms that of the near 6300 engineers who contributed to their Survey only 1% were unemployed. This compares very favourably with the UK national unemployment average of approximately 7% at present.
In addition, The Institution of Chemical Engineers website from its 2012 Salary Survey (see also below) lists Mean Average Basic Salaries for Chartered Engineers with 1st degrees as £70,000 and for the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Sector as £72,000.
Salary Survey Engineering UK
The EngineeringUK’s 2014 Report has information about salaries starting at page 202 Fig 14. Note that average salaries widely tabled in this survey are lower than those in the Engineering Council Survey figures above which are only for chartered engineers. This is because the EngineeringUK survey averages are mostly based upon Office of National Statistics data covering salaries from those at the start of their careers upwards whether registered or not with the Engineering Council. Table 14.3 however does include the Engineering Council 2013 Report figures. Graduate salary figures are not affected by this differing database.
The EngineeringUK Report has much other useful information about engineering as a career.
Graduate Salaries (EngineeringUK Report)
Did you know that figures published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in May 2010 confirm that 5 of the top 10 graduate average salaries in the UK are in Professional Engineering based employment?
EngineeringUK research indicates that the mean (average) starting salaries for engineering and technology graduates are now 22% more than the mean for all graduates. This is partly a result of a continuing skills shortage in the sector. (See Synopsis page XV1 of their report.)
Mean average starting salaries for graduates show engineering and technology as the second highest group in the UK at £25,762 after Medicine and Dentistry at £32,546.
Eng and Technology graduate salaries are significantly above Vets, Maths, Architecture, Law and Physical and Biological Sciences. (See Fig 13.3 of their report.)
Note that graduate starting salaries are on average almost 26% higher if engineering is your employer's main activity. (Table 13.4)
It remains a fact that, generally, female graduate salaries lag male salaries though, nowadays, not in all disciplines, with the average difference being 8.5%.
However, female graduate salaries were found to be marginally ahead of male salaries in Mechanical Engineering at 102.6%, Civil Engineering at 101.7% and close to parity in Chemical Engineering at 97.1%.
Salary Survey Institution of Chemical Engineers 2012
The Institution of Chemical Engineers provides “Salary Calculator” software which has been populated by the data obtained via their own members 2012 salary survey to enable Professional Chemical Engineers to review industry wide salary indicators that match their experience, employment sector and job responsibilities.
IESIS has an agreement with IChemE to allow access to this calculator from the ProfEng website. The IChemE data provides a good indication of salary levels that can be found in Chemical Engineering.