EETimes annual salary and opinion survey

The other week EETimes.com released several snippets from their annual salary and opinion survey. At first it seems that electrical engineers in the United States do rather well compared to their European and Japanese counterparts, with median earnings of $108k, $61k, and $65k, respectively. Now where it gets a little bit confusing is that the median earnings for American engineers include benefits. What is not exactly clear is what benefits are taken into consideration? Medical, 401k, ESPP, bonuses, or maybe all of the above? It is also not clear what benefits, if any, are included for European and Japanese engineers. Sure engineers in many European countries might earn less money wise, but healthcare and other benefits might be provided by the government instead. Some clarification of these points would be very much appreciated. There are also a few other points of concern. Why is it that the survey had 1,600 respondents from the United States and 1,900 from Japan, but only 164 from Europe? Either someone did not do their job very well, or it has to be concluded that the electrical engineering profession has all but disappeared from the European continent. To be fair, 164 respondents are more than EETimes obtained last year, but the number is still rather pathetically small.

Salaries aside, it is clear the engineers in the United States are highly concerned about foreign competition due to outsourcing and H1-B visa levels, as these were the predominantly cited issues of concern. A more detailed breakdown of the immigration issue can be found over here, where a whopping 37% of American engineers support a limit on the number and time that foreign workers may work in the U.S. Furthermore, a staggering 44% believe that foreign nationals that earned engineering degrees in the U.S. ought to be able to work in the U.S. only for a limited amount of time after graduation. This attitude is absolutely contrary to what many economic scholars suggest as the proper course of action for the U.S. in order to stay competitive with other countries over the next few decades. As discussed in a previous post, the Kauffman Foundation for example recommends a disbanding of the H1-B visa cap altogether. Others have suggested for the U.S. to institute programs that would enable students of advanced degrees to obtain citizenship upon successful completion of these degrees. Clearly, what American engineers believe is best for their career in the engineering field at this point does not align with what many policy makers and economic pundits believe to be best for the country in the long-term. Then again, maybe foreign workers don’t exactly want to stick around in the U.S. anyhow. Plenty of developing countries offer very good opportunities for skilled workers nowadays, and most of them offer significantly more vacation time that gets fully utilized by the workforce – translation: no more feeling bad about taking off two or three weeks at a time.