What do engineers earn? Small drop in average salaries for UK engineers

A survey of nearly 3,000 engineers working in the UK has revealed a drop in average earnings to £47,896 a year. Last year's average was £48,197.

The Engineer's annual salary survey found that oil and gas was the best-paid sector, with an average of £53,913, while telecoms and utilities/electronics was at the bottom of the list, at £44,504. The best-paid engineers are those at director level in the automotive sector, who earn an average salary of £81,226.

There was a huge gender disparity among the 2,864 engineers who took part in the survey – 92.8% of whom were men. This represents a small change – 7.2% of engineers in the survey are now women, compared with 5.5% in 2015.

Female engineers earn an average of £35,801 – down more than £3,000 from 2017, and £12,000 lower than the average salary for men. Although there are more men in senior positions (45.8% versus 30.5%), women earn less at every level, and only one in four said they are happy with their pay.

It is a similar picture for ethnic diversity in the profession – although this is more in line with the country at large. The proportion of engineers who describe themselves as white is now 88.6%, compared 87.17% in the 2011 census. However, non-white engineers earn almost £10,000 a year less on average than their white peers.

The average age of engineers has risen slightly to 45.8 across industry. Almost a third of engineers surveyed are in their fifties, and in the oil and gas industry more than 60% are over 50.