General > General Technical Chat
Why are engineering salaries so poor in the UK? Or, why does the US pay so well?
DaveW:
Slightly less general points, but speaking as an engineer in the UK, the salaries can be better than what you're citing in the first post. From my teams, trick is to have a specialisation which is in demand without going too narrow and niche. On my teams I've had people north of that figure as RF experts, people with DV clearances, analogue experts and a few others I've forgotten. Or you can go the dark side and go team leader/management.
Will be interesting to see if this matches more general experience, but after 5 years I'd expect to see around senior level, starting to mentor people and hitting a salary over 40k. Not a bad life all in all when you factor (generally speaking) having an interesting job...
Rick Law:
--- Quote from: ajb on May 21, 2018, 06:48:38 pm ---Salaries in the US also vary quite widely between regions and between specific disciplines. Averages are also dragged up quite a bit by places that pay absurd salaries, particularly in the software market--but many of those salaries lose a bit of their luster when you look at the cost of living you have to deal with to get them.
--- End quote ---
Even a couple of decades ago, a programmer in New York City would make $10K-$12K more than merely a few miles away across the river in Jersey city. Cost of living, commuting, etc. By now, I think most programming jobs are out of NYC already into the lower cost area.
While the employees see only a final number, standard practice of setting salary typically would be have a component based on zip code.
Besides cost of living, local regulations and local union rules matter too. In some areas, there is (was?) a "telecommute" push where employers are pushed by the locales to have x% doing telecommute or have flex hours to lower the rush hour traffic or the employer faces a financial penalty. That of course merely lowers the income of the employee by the same percentage. (How come the town council never thought of that is beyond me. They really think that employers will not move employees out, or somehow agree to operate in the red.)
David Chamberlain:
--- Quote from: Harb on May 23, 2018, 02:44:02 pm ---I have been pretty lucky to own my own TV
--- End quote ---
What? You own your own TV on an engineers salary. Well mr fancy pants :)
David Chamberlain:
More seriously in Australia the average seems to be 70 to 80k staring and upwards for graduate with 2 to 5 years experience. Cost of living (at least from my perspective) is low. Specifically im talking EE.
I drive 40km one way (25 miles) and traffic is not so bad.(have lived in UK so know what bad is)
lee_chen:
I am a radio engineer and i have about three years of experience,but i just got your half income,less benefits... this is fact you have to face it .
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