Engineers in Energy and Renewables sector are most satisfied with their pay, finds survey

April 2021 - Engineering

Engineers in Energy and Renewables sector are most satisfied with their pay: A survey of engineers across eleven sectors has found that those working in the Energy/Renewables/Nuclear sector are the most satisfied with their salary.

The Engineer's Salary Survey polled 845 engineers working across the industry to find out engineering salaries and engineers' satisfaction with how much they are paid for their work, as well as asking how valued they feel and how likely they are to consider moving on from their current job.

The average salary for engineers working in the Energy/Renewable/Nuclear sector was £65,932 per annum, with two thirds (66%) saying they are happy with their salary. This is the second highest paid engineer's salary after Oil & Gas, with the average salary in that sector being £75,366. However, despite being the highest paid engineers, just 29% of oil and gas professionals were content with their salary, meaning it ranked second to bottom in salary satisfaction, following Academia (28%).

Salary satisfaction

The survey found that engineers working in Food & Drink or Consumer Goods were the second most satisfied with their salary (£56,167 – and 51% satisfied), followed by Automotive (£57,639 and 49% satisfied), and Defence and Security/Marine (£52,330 and 49% satisfied).

Engineers working in Energy and Renewables were the happiest in their current job according to the research (68%), followed by food & drink / consumer (67%) and Academia (64%), whilst the least happy were respondents from the Aerospace (52%), Defence and Security (54%), Oil and Gas (55%) and Telecoms (55%).

Engineers working in Energy and Renewables felt the most valued (60%), followed by Food and Drink (58%) and Chemicals/Pharma and Medical (55%). The least valued, according to the poll, were from Rail/Civil and Structural sectors (30%), followed by Defence, Security and Marine (41%) and Materials (43%).

An overview of salaries

The research found that over the past 12 months, the average salaries of engineers overall has grown by 10% to £56,807. Looking at salaries by seniority, a junior or graduate salary was found to be £33,725 on average, while a senior engineer or manager was found to earn £56,506. A director-level salary was found to be an average of £84,091.

ENGINEERING SECTOR	AVERAGE SALARY (£)	SALARY SATISFACTION (%)	Happy in current job (%)	Feel valued in job (%)	Considering change of job (%)
Academia	56,692	28%	64	50	46
Aerospace	52,129	46%	52	45	38
Automotive	57,639	49%	57	49	47
Chemicals & Pharma, Medical	55,985	41%	56	55	48
Defence & Security / Marine	52,330	49%	54	41	34
Energy / Renewable / Nuclear	65,932	66%	68	60	33
Food & Drink / Consumer Goods	56,167	51%	67	58	32
Materials	36,940	29%	57	43	60
Manufacturing	54,059	35%	60	45	37
Oil & Gas	75,366	29%	55	45	29
Rail / Civil & Structural	56,965	48%	60	30	44
Telecomms / Utilities / Electronics	58,412	33%	55	47	43

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