Overworked? Underpaid? It's a common feeling in the industry

Editor's commentary

It’s not very British to ask someone how much money they earn. Such an above-board inquiry is likely to be met with red-faced embarrassment and obfuscation, or perhaps an altogether more forthright verbal response.

Despite such coyness, most people are very much interested in what their peers take home at the end of each month – it’s useful for personal comparison and is a valuable tool in wage negotiations. That’s why the publication of the Engineering Council’s biennial survey of registered engineers, which contains salary details, always creates quite a stir. And a couple of findings in the latest document have added to the debate. 

The headline figures from the Engineering Council survey show that all levels of registrant have seen a rise in total earnings since 2007; up 10% for CEngs, 6% for IEngs and 12% for EngTechs, with median annual total earnings in 2010 rising to £55k, £43k and £37k respectively. It is these levels of pay that have caused a real rumpus among PE readers as can be seen in the Soundbites column on page 13. The views expressed range from sheer incredulity at the high level of the salaries reported in the survey through to a very noticeable sense of disquiet over the veracity of the figures. In hindsight, perhaps the Engineering Council should have published annual mean earnings as well as median.

Of course, most people would say that they are underpaid – even historically well-remunerated professionals such as accountants and lawyers would surely claim to be so. That sentiment is felt particularly keenly among engineers. There’s a clear grievance among readers that the years of education and training it takes to become an engineer, and the responsibility of daily decision-making it leads to, are not adequately reflected in the salaries they earn or the respect they command.

That feeling of being undervalued continues to present quite a challenge to the profession, because a corollary of low status – perceived or otherwise – is inevitably low pay. Organisations such as the Engineering Council, Engineering UK and the major institutions have all sought to address the status problem but it’s obvious that more work still needs to be done. The media has a role to play too – the term “engineer” is still infuriatingly misused in newspapers and on television as a generic term for anyone who fixes things. That doesn’t help when it comes to selling the profession to the brightest young people.

Long-term readers of PE will note that pay and status has been a recurring theme, and indeed we’ve been here before. But that doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, it makes it more so because it’s an area of concern that hasn’t gone away. Engineers still feel undervalued – and unless that problem is dealt with the debate over pay and status will rumble on for a long time to come to the detriment of all concerned.