justinmeche

Yeah, most regular engineers start out making around $50k. My brother is ChemE and I am MechE. I definitely think engineers should make more money because of the amount of work involved. I worked as an intern for a manufacturing facility and the engineers were always busy fixing problems. I have heard that the salary tops off quickly, which is why some engineers go into management. I am thinking about going into law school but then there is no guarantee that my income will be much higher than an engineering salary....and I'll have even more work to do and more debt to pay off. I think engineers are underpaid because the skills are so vital to the operation of this country and the world. A surgeon may be able to save a life with an implant but an engineer designed the implant.

Phoenixmemori

"A surgeon may be able to save a life with an implant but an engineer designed the implant." i agree. i never thought of engineers getting overpaid...i think any careers in the health field are...some of them, they don't even need much work and they get like 80K a year (like pharmacist), doctors are different, they work their a$$ off saving peoples lives, so i think they deserve their "overpaid" salary. engineers, i think almost everything here involves with engineering and life without engineers, the world would collapse...now..do you think those people with business majors are overpaid?

jeffl

whatever man, u don't make any sense. medical researchers don't make much, there are postdocs that get paid around 80 k a year.

Phoenixmemori

i'm not talking about medical researchers??

scorp

supply and demand.

VTBoy

""A surgeon may be able to save a life with an implant but an engineer designed the implant." i agree. i never thought of engineers getting overpaid...i think any careers in the health field are...some of them, they don't even need much work and they get like 80K a year (like pharmacist), doctors are different, they work their a$$ off saving peoples lives, so i think they deserve their "overpaid" salary. engineers, i think almost everything here involves with engineering and life without engineers, the world would collapse...now..do you think those people with business majors are overpaid?"

Life without lawyers, medical researches, ect would collaps as well. So your point is mute. These people get paid less than engineers yet they have to go through more school and education. What they do is even more important I say. If the average salary of an engineer was around 40K, which I think it should be then there would still be a lot of engineers. It won't cause a major change in the number of people in the field. I find it hillarious how you alll think an engineer with only a B.S degree deserves to make more than a medical researcher who saves lives.

ariesathena

Starting engineers earn about $50k/year. That might seem like a lot, but, let me tell you, after suffering through the engineering curriculum, I felt that I was being adequately compensated - in short, I think that, after the schooling, I'm worth getting paid that much.

MrHappyFace

VTBoy, Engineers aren't overpaid.

You stated, "Life without lawyers, medical researches, ect would collaps as well. So your point is mute. These people get paid less than engineers yet they have to go through more school and education."

For one, I believe engineering has more fundamental applications. Engineering came before law, medical research, etc. It's not like people started practicing law before the wheel was invented. Therefore, technically I would argue Engineering is more of a foundation than law/medicine. However, don't get me as one of those "ENGINEERING OMG ITS THE ONLY THING AROUND!!!111oneone!!!1" people. I believe in balance, yada yada.

Two, Lawyers and medical researchers DO NOT GET PAID LESS THAN ENGINEERS. You might be comparing high level engineers to low level lawyers. I am basing that off my experiences with friends' parents. However, I could be wrong. I'd be interested in seeing some sources that support your claim.

balac

After all to get engineering degree is so difficult that they deserve the pay they get.

mominin

Anybody that goes into any field for the money is doing it for the wrong reasons and will be very unhappy when they have to wake up each morning and go to work.

Quote: "some of them, they don't even need much work and they get like 80K a year (like pharmacist)"

I don't know where you get your information (maybe guessing that pharmacists just count pills?) but Pharmacists do a ton of work and also work their fannies off in college with 18-22 hours per semester of work...and that's to get done in 6 years! Most pharmacists know more about any medication than any doctor...it's their specialty.

My son is going to study engineering and has known this is his passion since age six. He will come right out and tell you, he does not care if he makes 30G a year of 60, he wants to be an engineer. And THAT is why you should study a field...it should be an interest, a passion. If you do it just for the pay, you have a mightly long life ahead of you.

thomaschau

Engineers really don't make that much....
Only the MOST senior and the TOP engineers make anywhere near 100k

And the only ones who make more than 100k are businessmen who used to do engineering.

I don't know where you're getting your figures from...

A bunch of engineers I'd say are UNDERcompensated... think all the NASA engineers and the academics. Hell, academia in general pays poorly. And government work pays poorly.

T990

VTBoy, your stats must be for new graduates only.

Yes, engineering BS graduates make more than any other BS graduates. But that is hardly the whole story.

Taken as a long term whole, the engineering profession has become about the least stable and least professional field. Bell Labs, IBM, Hewlett Packard - once the bastions of professional engineering employent, no longer exist.

Engineering has for the most part become contract and migrant work in the US. Typical commercial firms don't offer long term engineering careers. It's a job not a career now. You might start out very well after graduation, but by the time an engineer is 40 or 45, they are very rarely still able to find work. And it has always held true that engineers' salaries level off (flat) after 20 years of experience - while your business major classmates are going much, much higher.

How hard it is to study a field in college has nothing to do with salaries. How important the work is to human advancement has nothing to do with salaries either. You can ignore this or complain about it or accept it as reality.

Unless you own your own business, your salary will be a function of supply and demand and the the productivity of whatever work you are doing. If there was a huge profit to be made in implants, then the salary of those designers would be commensurate. Thats why the guys designing XBox games make more.

Oh, BTW, the highest paid engineering graduates out of MIT are the ones who go and work for investment firms on Wall Street; their work has nothing to do with engineering design at all. Wall Street hires them because they figure they are smart, hard workers, and used to pressure.

Marines920

It depends on where you work too. I know engineers in major urban areas can easily make a nice amount, whereas an engineer in kansas will be making very little. I know engineers that are very wealthy and engineers that aren't so wealthy.. but they still manage to survive. If you're in the career path strictly for money... I advise against it.


I don't agree with your post, T990. Not every engineering facet is being outsourced or made extinct. Also, some newer fields of engineering are still evolving (the biomedical engineering boom/hype). Jobs are available and I can't imagine an engineer with 20 years of experience having a hard time keeping/finding a job. You don't have much supporting evidence for your claims and I still believe that engineering is a solid degree.

fei

T990: engineering of 40-45 age can't find job? exactly how did you deduce that?

VTBoy

"Two, Lawyers and medical researchers DO NOT GET PAID LESS THAN ENGINEERS. You might be comparing high level engineers to low level lawyers. I am basing that off my experiences with friends' parents. However, I could be wrong. I'd be interested in seeing some sources that support your claim."

Actually they do make less. The average starting salary of a medical researcher is around 55K and that is for someone with a Ph.D. I am not talking about starting salary which is only around 40K.

It is a myth that Engineers face salary cap, they don't. They can advance and continue to make money. After 20 years the average Engineer with a B.S makes over 200K a year.