Engineering Salary Survey

Knowing how much money you earn is as easy as looking at your check on payday, but knowing how much the guy in the next cubicle or the corner office makes is one of the great mysteries of the universe. That's probably why people in every profession are interested in salary surveys. In fact, from spending some time working in traditional paper-and-ink publishing, I can vouch for the fact that these surveys can make for the most popular issue of the year for just about any magazine. EETimes recently completed a survey of engineers that lets you see trends in pay rates in comparison to last year, along with showing the differences in pay for managers and engineers along with other, more bizarre, statistics like whether you make more if you're married or single (nothing on the difference in pocket money you have based on whether you're hitched or not, unfortunately). What's a little different about the EETimes survey is that it sampled engineers' salaries in the U.S., Europe, and ten Asian countries, which could give you a global perspective on your earnings. According to the article, after averaging an increase of $3,820 a year for the past five years, engineering salaries went flat in 2001 at an average salary of $82,900, a mere $100 increase from 2000 (but you probably know that). If you're an engineering manager, however, you may be doing pretty well this year, since salaries for these folks broke the $100,000 mark for the first time in the U.S. You might laugh, you might cry, but at least you'll know where you stand in the corporate food chain.