Despite earning lower salaries on average than their colleagues in other sectors, UK engineering academics are considerably happier in their jobs, according to The Engineer’s 2017 Salary Survey.
Based on responses from 2743 engineers working across 11 different sectors, this year’s survey – which was published earlier this summer – found that despite receiving the lowest average annual salary amongst UK engineers (£43,809), 61 per cent of academics are content in their current roles.
This contrasts with the energy sector – which despite offering amongst the highest average salaries (£51,953) appears to have a relatively unhappy workforce. Just 45.7 per cent said they were happy in their roles.
READ OUR FULL 2017 SALARY SURVEY REPORT HERE
Interestingly, despite being reasonably content in their roles in comparison with other sectors, academics are generally unhappy with their pay levels. Just 31.7 per cent of respondents from this sector told us that they are happy with what they get paid.
One explanation for academics’ overall contentment could the fact that they tend to receive more holiday than their colleagues in other areas with 41.5 per cent of respondents telling us that they enjoy more than 30 days paid leave per year.
Other key findings:
- Salaries for UK engineers have increased by 6.6 per cent on average over the last twelve months (The average salary now stands at £48k).
- Women engineers earn on average £10k less per year than their male colleagues
- 45 per cent of respondents are considering a change of job
- 49 per cent would consider relocating overseas
- More than 1/3 respondents are worried about impact of Brexit on job security
The Engineer’s 2017 salary survey is published in partnership with technical recruitment specialist CBS Butler.
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