After 10-year surge, EE salaries level off at $89k (EE Salary Survey)

EE Times ^ | August 28, 2003 | EE Times Staff

[TopQuark]

$59,800 in 1994 to a high of $89,100,

That's about 5.9% every year, way ahead of inflation.

[TopQuark]

Education pays They cannot reach that conclusion on the basis of salaries.

PhD, $112,115; MBA, $97,407; MSEE, $96,642; MSCS, $91,928; BSEE, $83,367; BSCS, $87,826; associate's degree, $65,703.

The premium for Ph.D. is about $5,500, or $165,000 in 30 years. However, if one completes that degree in 5 years, the holder of a Master's earns 96,000 * 5, a great deal more.

[Texas_Dawg]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

We're also all doomed.

Haven't you heard? The Japanese bought Rockefeller Center and Pebble Beach.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Exactly. It's all over!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Are you speaking about EE or the economy in general.

[sarcasm]

That's about 5.9% every year, way ahead of inflation

Are you opposed to an increasing standard of living?

[TopQuark]

Are you opposed to an increasing standard of living?

Not at all.

I am opposed to:

1. Constant b---g in press and, more disturbingly, on this forum about how badly this sector is hit: they've got to be fair and admit that they've had it very well for a long, long time; now life is simply returning to normal.

2. Those screaming for protectionism not entertaiing the thought that they may've priced themselves out of the market.

[ironman]

Where do you get the $5,500? And usually it only takes 3 years or so beyond and MS to get a PhD. Interesting that my best earning years are ahead of me when I'll be in the 55-59 bracket.

[1rudeboy]

I don't get it . . . if EE salaries have leveled-off after rising for 10 years, then what about all those H1-B workers that were allegedly driving the salaries down?

[sarcasm]

What's normal - $ 6000/year like Indians will accept?

Have offered to take a cut in your pay because you're overpaid and had it very, very well for a long, long time?

[1rudeboy]

Are you opposed to an increasing standard of living?

Maybe he's opposed to being told that our standard of living is falling?

[DefCon]

O.K., I'll bite.
What is an EE?

[sarcasm]

Maybe he's opposed to being told that our standard of living is falling?

For many the standard of living has fallen.

[1rudeboy]

It happens. But for more, the standard of living is rising.

[TopQuark]

I stand corrected on both counts: (i) the differential is about 15,500, not 5,500; and (ii) the time is three years, not five (I was thinking of total post-graduate).

The point remains correct, however: the foregone salary is about 300,000, plus tuition if one is unable to get a waiver. The differential is 15,500* 30, about 500,000, very comparable.

To make the computation correct, one has to discount the stream of cash flows differentials, whereas the foregone salary occurs up front. The net present value of the salary differential seems about the size of the foregone salary even when tuition is not taken into account.

To summarize: (i) one cannot judge whether it is wort it to get a Ph.D. by looking at the salary, and (ii) the monetary value of the Ph.D. is negligible.

[TopQuark]

what about all those H1-B workers that were allegedly driving the salaries down? I am not sure who made the allegations that H1-B workers were dribving the salaries down. Certain types of labor where simply not available and were filled with H1-B. To give an example, if an H1-B worker that programs in Java is not hired, it will not increase the salary of an American worker in the next cubicle who programs in COBOL. The vacancy in that case would simply remain unfilled.

The price change is only one mechanism to bring an equilibrium. There also may be rationing, and that is what H1B was designed to combat: shortage of labor.

[TopQuark]

What's normal - $ 6000/year like Indians will accept?

The market determines what's normal.

If you take Economics 101, you will know that normal for you is not $6000 because you are more productive. What the market shows, however, that it is not 90,000 either.

Have offered to take a cut in your pay because you're overpaid and had it very, very well for a long, long time? I do not understand this sentence.

[sarcasm]

Did you miss Friday's Income Report?

According to the money income measures, real median income did not change for households with non-Hispanic householders who reported white as their only race ($46,900) or for households whose householder reported a single race of Asian ($52,626). Income declined for all other racial and ethnic groups.

[TopQuark]

So what is the import of your emphasis on the "other racial and ethnic groups?"