Salaries

Professional Engineers are well paid in the UK. Chartered engineer status is a solid foundation for a well remunerated career. In 2022, The Engineer magazine quoted a mean average salary of £58,108. Typically, the comparative salary levels of practising professional engineers from the highest down are:

o Chemical Engineering
o Electrical/Electronic Engineering

The above two disciplines are now very close in remuneration.

o Mechanical
o Software Engineering
o Civil Engineering

Similarly, Software Engineering and Civil Engineering are very close in remuneration.

Salaries by industry sector

Combined average annual earnings across engineering in The Engineer 2017, 2019 and 2022 surveys for chartered /non-chartered engineers salaries taken together are listed below.

Engineering Sector	2017	2019	2022
Oil and gas	54,461	57,161	58714
Energy/Renewables/Nuclear	51,953	58,695	62709
Chemical/Pharmacy/Medical	51,750	56,206	61331
Materials	48,318	48,773	57892
Automotive	48,100	49,736	57996
Defence/Security/Marine	46,838	50,206	57533
Telecoms/Electronics	46,567	51,825	58682
Food and Drink	46,460	52,877	50589
Aerospace	46,362	50,284	51914
Rail/Civil and Structural	44,890	46,369	53244
Academic	43,809	43,830	47999

The 2022 Survey indicates that the Energy/Renewables/Nuclear industry has increased its lead over Chemical/Medical Pharmacy and Oil and Gas in the UK as the highest earning engineering sector.

Starting salaries continue to rise as a result of demand growing and the supply of graduates declining fairly significantly.

Chartered Engineers' Salaries

Engineers whose experience has enabled them to achieve registered Chartered Engineer status (CEng) under the Engineering Council will be earning salaries significantly higher than the averages across engineering in the above tables.

Remember these are average salaries for all Chartered Engineers. The median salary for Chemical Engineers with chartered status is £ 78,000.

More than 62% of engineers who have reached Director level are Chartered Engineers.

There are significant numbers of Chartered Engineers working in Scotland in 2019 whose salaries were in excess of £200,000 with some significantly higher than that of the Chief Constable of Police Scotland.

Salary Growth with Increasing Experience

2024 figures listed by Jobted a prominent salary search engine (https://uk.jobted.com/salary) provides data on how salaries grow as experience increases.

Taking Electrical Engineering as an example, they quote "A mid- career Electrical Engineer with 4-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of £51,600 while a Senior engineer with 10-20 years of experience makes on average £91,000. Electrical Engineers with more than 20 years of experience earn £120,000 on average". The highest salaries can exceed £170,000.

The following table lists the Jobted salary data for some of the main engineering disciplines. It does not separate Chartered from non- Chartered salaries.

Engineering discipline	Years of experience
	4-9	10-20	20+	Highest
Electrical Engineering	51,600	91,000	120,000	>170,000
Chemical Engineering	47,400	84,900	97,800	>150,000
Mechanical Engineering	46,000	75,300	96,000	120,000
Software Engineering	46,300	79,200	89,000	130,000
Civil Engineering	43,600	74,000	94000	110,000
Structural Engineering	42300	76000	87100	110000
Production Engineering	38660	58940	64910	100,000

Engineering and Technology graduate salaries are significantly above Maths, Architecture, Law and Physical and Biological Sciences (Table 8.31).

The Engineer Magazine salary information https://teng.mydigitalpublication.co.uk/articles/salary-survey?article_id=4751880&i=818710#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20it%20appears%20that,to%20the%20oil%20and%20gas

This estimates how your salary as an engineer compares with other engineers in the same industry sector in the various areas of the UK and is a useful guide to current career earnings data.