IEEE-USA Membership Salary and Fringe Benefit Survey (1999-2000) Executive Summary

A significant rise in the value of the services
of electrical and computer engineers.

IEEE-USA's 1999 survey of the salaries and fringe benefits of its membership shows major gains in the value of professional services in electrical, electronic, and computer engineering. Since the previous study in 1997, the primary incomes of IEEE members - their base salaries, net earnings from self-employment, and commissions and bonuses, as measured by data on engineers working full time in their areas of professional competence - have increased 13.9 percent.

Some of these gains have been offset by inflation; during the same two year period the Consumer Price Index for urban areas rose 3.3 percent. And some of the gains can be attributed to the aging of IEEE-USA's membership; the average age of the salary survey respondents who are in the workforce has risen from 44.0 years in 1997 to 46.8 years in 1999, mirroring the aging of the U.S. population generally. This older workforce is more experienced and so it earns more money.

Even after allowance is made for such trends, a very healthy improvement in pay scales for electrical, electronic and computer engineers is apparent. Moreover, these gains build on previous achievements. In 1997, the purchasing power of IEEE-USA's members reached its highest level since these surveys began in 1972. In 1999, an even more significant record was set, with the largest increase ever reported in the real income of the members, measured in constant 1999 dollars. For more information on these developments, see Section 6.

Profile of the respondents to the survey.

The statistics in this report describe a typical electrical, electronics or computer engineer who works full time in his primary area of technical competence (PATC). In his mid-forties, with both a BSEE and an advanced degree and more than 20 years of experience, he has been with his current employer for over a decade. He is at the fifth or sixth of nine possible levels of professional responsibility, equivalent to a department manager or full professor. He supervises several other people, both professionals and support staff. His basic income is in the mid-eighties; when earnings from other family members are counted, the total median income of his household exceeds $100,000 a year.

Median primary incomes pass the $80K threshold. As of January 1999, the median primary income of IEEE members in the U.S. was $82,000; in 1997, the same figure was $72,000. This figure is for those working full time in their primary area of technical competence ("PATC"), a group that includes over 60 percent of the respondents to IEEE's survey. The gains look even better if income from all sources is counted, adding earnings from second jobs, payments for overtime, pension benefits, and the like; this pushes up the medians for engineers working full time in their specialties to $87,200 in 1999, compared to $76,000 in 1997, a gain of 14.7 percent.

The general trend of strong income gains is also seen in the 1999 results for engineers working outside their primary areas of competence. Full time self-employed engineers did especially well, achieving an average 19.4 percent increase in income from primary sources. In addition to these kinds of compensation, 27.5 percent of the employed IEEE members received stock options. The share getting options has increased since 1997, when the percentage was 16.1, and the size of these awards increased for those who received them, to a median estimated present value of $10,000. A few members reported very large awards of stock options, valued at $500,000 or more.

Differences among specialties.

In the past, the most lucrative broad category of technical competence for IEEE's members, measured by median income from primary sources, has been Engineering and Human Environment, which includes managers. Management continues to be the best-paying specialty for engineers, but in 1999 a number of technical specialties also offer excellent financial incentives.  Median incomes from primary sources of more than $90,000 a year were reported not just by managers but also by IEEE members working in laser and electro-optics, solid-state circuits, and communications. Specialists in components, packaging and manufacturing technology, computer hardware, and aerospace also did well. At the other end of the scale, relatively low levels of pay were reported for those in dielectrics and electrical insulation, network administration, energy and power engineering, control systems, and education.

Trends for the profession vs. those for individuals.

All of the results summarized above are general tendencies for the profession: that is, they document overall trends of improvement in the value of the work done by people in electrical and computer engineering (including some exceptions to those trends). This is not the same as sizing up the income experience of specific individual engineers, who benefit from additional improvements in their pay for added experience. To illustrate, the rises in income discussed above are measured by comparing the median earnings of IEEE's members in 1999 with similar figures for the membership in 1997. However, individual members gained two years of experience during this period. To measure what has happened to them, one may compare the incomes of those at any particular level of experience

in 1997 with the incomes of those with two more years of experience in 1999. For example, IEEE's 1997 survey showed that those with ten years of experience in 1996 had typical (median) incomes from primary sources, for engineers working in their areas of technical competence, of $68,000. Interpolating results from the new survey, similar engineers with 12 years of experience in 1998 had median incomes of $78,200, a gain of 15.0 percent. Such gains for increased experience are largest during the early and middle years of a career, tapering off for older engineers as the relative significance of another year of practice is reduced.

New features of the survey in 1999.

This year's salary study contains some new elements. Information is included on such specialties as solid-state circuits and network administration, and on the number of members who have accepted job-shop contract employment assignments. Reactions to different types of health coverage are reported.

Another significant enhancement is further refinement of the regression model developed by IEEE-USA to calculate income estimates for thousands of specific combinations of experience, level of professional responsibility, degrees, specialty, job function, employer size/type/sector, and region. The upgraded model now generates figures for ranges of pay as well as specific point estimates, allowing users to improve the allowances they may want to make for such unmeasured factors as the circumstances of particular employers or their own performance. And the model now tests for possible effects on pay of location in major metropolitan locations as well as other parts of each IEEE-USA region.

Other improvements adopted in 1997 have been continued, including the provision of information on hourly rates used by self-employed engineers, and reports on the members' subjective sense of satisfaction with various aspects of their engineering jobs.

Thiis biennial survey provides the latest statistics on U.S. engineering salaries to help users consider prospective jobs, negotiate salary and benefits, or find out about related positions in their field. It includes cross tabulations of income data (salary plus supplemental earnings) by areas such as age, experience, industry, technical expertise, and geographical location. A special multiple regression-analysis formula developed using nearly 70 predictive variables is also provided in the 1999 survey.

May 18, 1999 Press Release

1999-2000 IEEE-USA Member Salary
& Fringe Benefits Survey

Order Number: UH2981

Member Price: $74.95

List Price: $149.95

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Last Update:  21 June 2000
Staff Contact: Svetlana Durkovic, s.durkovic@ieee.org