The economy may be down, but your salaries are up

 

It's that time again. The results of Printed Circuit Design's 2001 Salary Survey are in, and they should provide a welcome distraction from a very distracting year in the electronics industry.

This also marks the 15th anniversary of the first PCD Salary Survey. We first asked you to share information about your salary and your employer in an effort to help us gauge the state of PCB design in the October 1986 issue of PCD.

The good news is that a lot of positive things have happened since then. Most of you are making enough to keep the wolf from the door and then some. A vast majority of 2001 survey respondents are satisfied with their career and current job. The average base salary for respondents is now over $58,000. Most took almost two weeks of vacation within the last year. Over 93% of respondents were not laid off within the last year.

But the graying of the PCB engineering and design pool continues. The average age of respondents was 41, and the "20-25 years of experience" box was the most popular. For a variety of reasons, this industry hasn't attracted many new PCB design professionals since about 1990. Of course, this helps the existing PCB professionals when it comes to job-hunting, but eventually we're going to run out of PCB designers and engineers.

You already know about the economy, so I'll just sum it up. During 2001, 1 million U.S. job cuts-many in high-tech-were announced before Sept. 11. Since that day things have been even sketchier, and there aren't many PCB designers or engineers who can say with any certainty that their jobs are secure. Combined layoffs from Lucent, Nortel and Motorola have totaled nearly 100,000, with Compaq, Ericsson, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics, 3Com, Dell, Gateway and Intel cutting between 5,000 and 10,000 workers apiece. It's rough out there.

I know of several senior PCB designers who have been laid off this year. ("We'll just have the engineers do your job," one was told.) Each found equal-paying jobs within two or three weeks-in another state. A number of open design and engineering positions have been posted on our listserve, but there's no telling how many resumes each one attracts.

New and improved

We've learned something from every PCD Salary Survey since the first survey in 1986. That original 13-question, one-page form found that the average salary for PCB designers was $28,000. The salaries-and the number of questions on the survey-have more than doubled in the last 15 years.

We've made changes to the survey's format along the way. For example, in 2000 we asked respondents to select salary ranges-which self-employed respondents favored-instead of giving us their exact pay rate. But ranges can't be averaged, and without an average, it's harder for you to prove to your boss that you're grossly underpaid. So we've brought salary averages back to the survey for 2001.

We also put the survey online this year, which may account for the increase in respondents. But I miss the comments scrawled on the margins of the printed surveys. Last year, in the job satisfaction section, someone opined, "You need to include a box for 'love my career and job but hate my boss.'" Many who filled out the 1986 PCD Salary Survey expressed many of the same sentiments, proving once again that some things in PCB design never change.

Function vs. title

The average pay for PCB design professionals first passed the $50,000 mark in the 1999 survey, and it's been creeping up the salary scale ever since. The average overall base salary of 2001 salary survey respondents was $58,823 (see the Averages-at-a-glance).

Averages at a glance

Average overall age of respondents = 41
Average male age = 41
Average female age = 42
Average overall base salary = $58,823
Average male base salary = $57,237
Average female base salary = $66,535
Average U.S. base salary = $61,113
Average Canadian base salary (in U.S. funds) = $44,457
Average self-employed salary = $75,200
Average total personal compensation (includes other sources of income plus the base salary) = $61,340
Average gross household income = $78,904
Average hourly rate = $33.33
Average per job rate = $166.67

But job titles and job functions often mean different things to different companies. Let's look at job function first (see Figure 1). There's good news if your principal job function is marketing/sales, which leads the pack with an average salary of $85,000. But management is right on your heels, with design/layout management at $77,949, engineering management at $79,500, and general or corporate management at $70,000.

For 2001, PCB designers averaged $56,450, with PCB layout coming in at $49,667 and PCB engineering averaging $60,911. The ECAD librarian/library manager function earned $53,777, and design support brought up the rear at $39,820. With an average that low, we can safely estimate that there are still plenty of draftsmen and schematic entry techs making about $30K-$40K annually.

Among job titles (see Figure 2), vice president of engineering came in first at $84,333, followed by principal engineer at $77,250. The title of technical or technology director/manager brought in $73,830, while senior engineers averaged $69,596 and senior PCB designers earned $59,100. The title of PCB designer took $55,369, nearly the same as PCB designers by function. Likewise, the title of CAD librarian brought in $53,554, about equal to the job function of the same name.

Are you experienced?

As you can see from Figure 3, it pays to be experienced. Respondents with 15-20 years of experience came out on top at $71,178, sloping down into the $60,000 region for those with 25 years and up. Respondents in the industry for 1-6 years were grouped tightly in the low- and mid-$40s, as were those with 9-15 years of experience in the mid-$50s.

Notice that salary does not increase constantly in proportion to experience (and age) throughout a designer's career. The apparent drop-off in salary after designers hit the 20-year mark can probably be attributed to the sheer number of designers and engineers, 38% of respondents, with between 15 and 25 years of experience. There are a lot of these design veterans out there, and they're the ones making most of the money.

By comparison, the 1986 PCD Salary Survey found that 71% of respondents had 1-10 years of experience and 71% were 35 or under. This is the same group that now comprises the most populous group of design professionals today-those with 15 to 25 years of experience. This is the single biggest demographic group ever recorded in PCB design, and there may never be another group this large again in the industry.)

The average overall age of respondents is 41, and the age group between 40 and 49 comprises the biggest age grouping of respondents. The slide in designers' salaries starts when they reach 50. If these folks get laid off, it's much more difficult for them to find another design job, and at the same salary. Some take early retirement or take up another career. Others become consultants, and a few of those help skew the salary data upward. For those with 25 years or more of experience, it's a case of feast or famine.

In Figure 4, the 60+ demographic boasts the highest average salary, $68,000. If you're working in design after 60, you've got a good thing going. But the 40-49 age group is close behind at $61,179, mainly because so many designers fall into this category. Those in the 50-59 age group drop back down to around $59,000, the same salary they made when they were between 30 and 39 years of age.

The company you keep

In 1986, PCD asked whether respondents worked for a captive shop or a service bureau. Back then, 81% worked for captives, with 13% at service bureaus and 3% at both.

For 2001, we've broken the workplace down into seven categories (See Figure 5). Employees of CAD/CAM/CAE software vendors earned the highest average salary, $69,300, but accounted for only 1.3% of the total number of respondents. As in past years, most respondents, 78% of them, work for OEMs, averaging $59,109 a year. Just 6.3% work for contract electrical manufacturers, bringing in $57,711. Service bureaus and government/military accounted for 5.5% and 5%, respectively, with service bureaus paying an average of $58,043 and government/military averaging $52,533. For a breakdown of respondents by end-product produced, see Figure 8. For a breakdown of respondents by education level, see Figure 7.

And, as in past years, salaries vary widely from state to state (see Figure 6). Californians had the highest salary average, $75,773. Massachusetts came in second with $64,798, while Illinois and Texas rounded out the Top 4 with $63,000 and $62,148, respectively. Toward the lower end of the spectrum, Ohio design professionals averaged $49,836, and those in Wisconsin averaged $47,048 annually. Florida, Arizona, New York, Washington and Colorado all averaged in the $50s. These 11 states were home to most survey respondents: And therefore, were the most meaningful statistically.

Satisfaction

Almost 60% of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with their current compensation. Nearly 90% are satisfied or very satisfied with their choice of career, and 77% are satisfied or very satisfied with their current job. Just over half received a bonus in the last 12 months.

But ask about corporate direction and watch the numbers dive. Only 58% are satisfied or very satisfied with their employers' corporate direction and potential, and only 48.6% are satisfied or very satisfied with their own advancement potential at their current job.

Miscellaneous data

When it comes to the size of the respondents' employers, there's no middle ground. Most respondents work at corporations with thousands of other employees or at small companies. The biggest chunk of respondents, 28.7%, work for companies with over 3,001 employees, followed by 22.2% working at firms of between 51 and 200 employees. Companies with less than 50 employees garnered 17.5% of respondents, and firms with 201-500 workers accounted for 16.7%. The medium-sized firms of 501-3000 employees employ only 14.3% of respondents.

Most respondents receive some sort of benefits. Nearly all have access to health insurance, dental or vision insurance, life insurance and a 401(k) plan. Almost half have access to stock purchase plans, but more than half do not own stock options in their companies. More than a fourth have access to profit-sharing, relocation expenses, exercise rooms and cafeterias. Day care facilities and sabbaticals are available to less than 10% of respondents.

Moving forward, slowly

Where does this leave you? It's hard to say. No one can predict what the next few quarters will bear, especially after the attack on America. But inventories are down and we still haven't had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, main ingredients in the recession stew.

Overall, most PCB design professionals are doing better this year than in 2000, and much better than when the first PCD Salary Survey came out 15 years ago. Salaries are crawling upward, dreary economy or not, and most designers have not been "downsized" within the last 12 months. Most of you are making a decent living and are satisfied with your current jobs. A lot of other people can't say the same thing. Be thankful.