One hundred years ago, engineers made about $4,000 per year - roughly ten times the average wage in America. That was more than dentists made, twice as much as accountants, more than veterinarians.
My how things have changed.
On the day I was hired into the shuttle program - with a BSEE, but knowing absoulutly nothing about the shuttle - they gave me $17 per hour. Thirteen years later on the day I quit - knowing just about everything about the shuttle and how it was processed - I was making less than when I started after adjusting for inflation.
My neighbor, OTOH, was a bean-counter at KSC (configuration management). On the day he left, he was making twice what I was.
Come to think of it, at just about every job I ever had, the engineers were not very well paid. Working at Vidar, the electronic techs made more than the engineers. Working for Pacific Gas & Electric, the union janitors made more than the engineers.
I should have gone into architecture...
If I had it to do over I would go into a trade. Welding.
117 - "Thirteen years later on the day I quit - knowing just about everything about the shuttle and how it was processed - I was making less than when I started after adjusting for inflation. "
I don't know if you were aware of it or not, but there was a "racket" at KSC, an agreement within and among the contractors, limiting individual wage increases to 8% for a person (not accounting for inflation), no matter what you did, even getting a dramatically different, more important, should be more pay position. Normal raises (even for promotions) were limited to 2-5% (about the standard inflation.
These 'secret' agreements prevented the various companies from 'stealing' workers from one another, but also prevented individuals from getting any real raises. Essentially you were effectively 'stuck' with the wage you hired in at, no matter what you did. It also allowed the companies, like Lockheed and Rockwell, and MACAC to transfer workers from high paying California jobs, without raising the salaries of the KSC 'locals'.
I finally figured out that the only real way to get a raise at KSC was to transfer to a new company/job in California and then get transferred back to KSC on a California pay scale.
When I finally figured out that I would never get a real raise (I hired in highly experienced, but at a low rate - because I was stuck in the oil crash in Texas), I started trying to get out, because there was no way to secure a better future, and no other real options in Brevard County, than to work at Kennedy Space Center.
(I hired in - with 20 years experience - at $12 per hour (common labor was paying 11.50 per hour then thanks to the unions) because I was desparate, and after 4 years and 3 promotions from grade 2 to grade 6, and great experience, the best I could do was $14 per hour). So in spite of my many awards for excellence, and saving launches many times, and saving millions and millions, I just couldn't get a raise to much above common labor.)