Why are engineering salaries so poor in the UK? Or, why does the US pay so well? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 05:22:19 pm
content: I am an electronic engineer and I get paid £32k per year in Leeds. After tax, that's ~£24k. I have about five years of experience. I have never received an offer in my region above £35k, and even in the South of England (London, etc), the best salaries I see are £55k. According to data, the average salary is about £42k.Compare this to the USA: Average salaries are $75k, but 25% of engineers earn over $94k. That's £55k - £70k in British money - neglecting the fact that US dollars buy more anyway and that the cost of living in (most areas) of the USA is lower than the UK.Australia and New Zealand have similar average salary ranges to the UK, although the top end of the market appears a little better. I see offers for $120kAUD in Australia - though no idea if this is common or realistic. Canada pays slightly better than these -- but again the salaries are so much better in the USA by at least 20%.These are all English speaking countries so I would have thought that skilled immigration would even out gaps in employment levels, yet the US always jumps ahead of the pack.What is the cause for the difference in salaries? Is it supply and demand? Better productivity? Longer hours?

author: Yansi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 05:39:32 pm
content: Dude! What are you bitching about? Here we get like down to half that you get in the UK... Which understandably sucks and pushes masses to not enter any engineering fields.

author: TK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 05:49:47 pm
content: I think they are equivalent (or even favorable to UK) after you discount the cost of health care, education, paid vacation days, etc.There is a good documentary called Where to Invade Next, by Michael Moore.

author: JohnnyMalaria
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 05:50:29 pm
content: Same is true in the pharmaceutical industry.One reason is the all the stuff you have to pay a fortune for such as child daycare, health insurance, dental insurance, paying off your tuition fees, more expensive phone/internet, utilities in general (gas, electric). For the latter, take the UK quarterly bill and that's the monthly here (in my experience). Also, putting money aside to pay for children's education (tuition fees), saving for retirement. I can't remember how that was in the UK when I moved - I know it was transitioning from SERPS to private. If, like me, you don't have kids then you'requidsdollars inEven more so if, like me, you didn't pay a single penny for your education in the UK (bloody socialists).

author: PChi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 06:10:35 pm
content: My guess is that the electronics industry in the UK is gradually shrinking so the pay is poor because of market forces. Also there is very little understanding or appreciation for engineeing even within the business so failure is built in.

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 06:48:38 pm
content: Salaries in the US also vary quite widely between regions and between specific disciplines. Averages are also dragged up quite a bit by places that pay absurd salaries, particularly in the software market--but many of those salaries lose a bit of their luster when you look at the cost of living you have to deal with to get them.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 07:57:01 pm
content: I can remember when 'back east' companies came out to Silicon Valley. They had a corporate wide pay structure that didn't account for differences in cost of living. They had a hard time recruiting and retaining in the Valley because their 'back east' pay scales didn't cut it.Why do engineers make so much money in Silicon Valley? Because they're worth it! That and the law of supply and demand. Unfortunately, that same law applies to housing. A month or so back, an 850 square foot post war house sold for $2M.https://sf.curbed.com/2018/3/2/17073100/silicon-valley-house-home-sunnyvale-record-price-crisisSo, if you're coming to the Valley from anywhere else, you probably can't afford to live anywhere near where you work. Plan on commuting from 60+ miles away. Even then, it's iffy. Maybe at 90 miles you can get into a decent house for a more or less reasonable price.Even better, buy a larger sail boat (40-50 feet) and live aboard up in Alameda (60 mile commute). Right across the estuary from Jack London Square, a few miles away from SF Pier 39, great sailing. I had a smaller sailboat there for 20+ years. Too small to live on but the idea was there.Or, wait for the next downturn and buy in when you can. For ex-military, make sure you consider your GI Bill benefits. In these high dollar areas, the amount guaranteed by .gov means the part you have to finance separately is likely to be quite low. You need 20% down on the excess of what the VA covers.I don't live in the high dollar area but the VA covers $417k around here so most houses are fully covered. There is no down payment and no Primary Mortgage Insurance. For a $500k house, the own payment would be 20% of ($500k -$417k or $17k) Just a little side benefit of spending a couple of years in the Army.There's a lot of magic coming out of Silicon Valley. You can expect that there are some fairly bright engineers creating it.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 08:20:05 pm
content: To fund my startup and live myself, it would cost me 3x to 4x less to do it here in Montreal instead of Silicon Valley. With the savings, I would just have to fly first class, plus 2 partners, and pay for hotels in Silicon Valley around 3 times a year and I would still save big$$$.But if I want things to move faster and be available in the California area for both Silicon Valley and LA, is the 4x expense worth it? That's a tough one. Whichever I choose, at least I have access to a good talent pool of engineers and media designers here in Montreal, especially if I offer just 60% of top tier Silicon Valley salaries for those key head positions, I'll own almost whoever I want.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 09:04:41 pm
content: Its all a matter of supply and demand. UK electronics salaries were never great, but when there was demand for engineers salaries were better than they are today. Now there is very little electronic engineering work in the UK, and most of what remains is not exactly leading edge, salaries have adjusted accordingly.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 09:07:09 pm
content: Quote from: rstofer on May 21, 2018, 07:57:01 pmI think you misunderstand the concept of supply and demand. Demand for engineers in Silicon Valley outstrips supply, so salaries rise. The supply is low because its so expensive living in Silicon Valley that people are reluctant to move in. The "worth" of the engineers has little to do with it.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 09:11:35 pm
content: That certainly holds up for some I've worked with!There were some very good ones, including my boss, but there were some truly hopeless ones too. Typical cross section in fact.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 09:55:33 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on May 21, 2018, 09:07:09 pmI'm pretty sure I understand supply and demand. The 'because they're worth it' was facetious. Originally...On reflection, it's true. Try to bring a product to market without engineers and code weenies. If the companies could succeed while paying less, they certainly would.Supply and demand (specifically lack of demand) is why mechanical engineers typically make about 80% of an EEs salary.If you want to find out what certain jobs pay, go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and search for appropriate titles. Then you can drill down and find out what the jobs pay in certain locales. It's a handy tool for career planning.https://www.bls.gov/I'm reasonably sure that some other agency publishes cost of living (or perhaps housing) for the various locales. It would be interesting to correlate cost of living versus salary. And another agency can tell you about weather. Some people want to live where it snows and others only want to see it on a postcard.One problem with the BLS data is that, within a job title, it isn't very granular. Electrical engineers are all lumped together. This means that utility electrical is munged with all other flavors. There is a category for computer engineers and a couple for software engineers and they do break out programmers. So, the data has to be thought through. When you look at EE salaries in Silicon Valley, it's pretty clear that it doesn't include utility engineers.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2018, 10:11:12 pm
content: Quote from: rstofer on May 21, 2018, 09:55:33 pmThanks!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 03:17:40 am
content: The way to make out in the US is to work for a company that is based in the Silicon Valley and has nationwide operations with a single payscale. Getting Silicon Valley pay while living at Dallas/Ft. Worth cost of living works really well.Not always easy to land those gigs, and for fairly obvious reasons they have relatively low turnover. Best way is probably to start in the Valley and then get a transfer. Also requires comfort with the climate (both physical and social) at the low cost location, but there really are some very nice low cost places.To OPs question, it is because companies find they don't have to pay more to get and hold engineers. The salary plus all the other factors (home country, benefits, ....) are sufficient for a sufficient number of people. Complicated way to say supply and demand.

author: Harb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 02:44:02 pm
content: I am an Engineer in the TV and occasionally Radio Broadcast industry, but I have been pretty lucky to own my own TV Outside Broadcast business for most of my life, so I have never really worked for another company on a permanent basis so I cant really say what the wages are like, other than I do a lot of contract work these days.........I have worked for a UK owned company operating here from time to time, and they pay really well....better than the US, so maybe it more of a "we pay what we have to" thing in the UK.......32k pounds sounds like pretty ordinary pay to me.....maybe the job requires less there than here or in the US ?120k here leaves you with a lot of responsibilities, but I have heard of OB engineers that earn a lot less, but do a lot less too.......to get to the high end you really have to be on your game and be prepared for all the downsides of the job.A lot of Day labour with plain old day rates seem to keep the show going here too .

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 10:55:13 pm
content: Slightly less general points, but speaking as an engineer in the UK, the salaries can be better than what you're citing in the first post. From my teams, trick is to have a specialisation which is in demand without going too narrow and niche. On my teams I've had people north of that figure as RF experts, people with DV clearances, analogue experts and a few others I've forgotten. Or you can go the dark side and go team leader/management.Will be interesting to see if this matches more general experience, but after 5 years I'd expect to see around senior level, starting to mentor people and hitting a salary over 40k. Not a bad life all in all when you factor (generally speaking) having an interesting job...

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 11:33:09 pm
content: Quote from: ajb on May 21, 2018, 06:48:38 pmEven a couple of decades ago, a programmer in New York City would make $10K-$12K more than merely a few miles away across the river in Jersey city. Cost of living, commuting, etc. By now, I think most programming jobs are out of NYC already into the lower cost area.While the employees see only a final number, standard practice of setting salary typically would be have a component based on zip code.Besides cost of living, local regulations and local union rules matter too. In some areas, there is (was?) a "telecommute" push where employers are pushed by the locales to have x% doing telecommute or have flex hours to lower the rush hour traffic or the employer faces a financial penalty. That of course merely lowers the income of the employee by the same percentage. (How come the town council never thought of that is beyond me. They really think that employers will not move employees out, or somehow agree to operate in the red.)

author: David Chamberlain
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2018, 11:09:34 am
content: Quote from: Harb on May 23, 2018, 02:44:02 pmWhat? You own your own TV on an engineers salary. Well mr fancy pants

author: David Chamberlain
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2018, 11:23:26 am
content: More seriously in Australia the average seems to be 70 to 80k staring and upwards for graduate with 2 to 5 years experience. Cost of living (at least from my perspective) is low. Specifically im talking EE.I drive 40km one way (25 miles) and traffic is not so bad.(have lived in UK so know what bad is)

author: lee_chen
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 25, 2018, 01:40:56 am
content: I am a radio engineer and i have about three years of experience，but i just got your half income,less benefits... this is fact you have to face it .

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2018, 09:30:55 pm
content: Quote from: lee_chen on May 25, 2018, 01:40:56 amYour purchasing power is likely more than 1/2 his. Depending on where you are in China, as measured by PP, you could be far better off (financially) than he is.It is perhaps a natural law of business that businesses seeks to lower cost by outsourcing. It would be smart for higher cost countries/locales to climb the value tree to make their higher cost worth the extra. Trouble is, politicians rarely understand that. They merely try to attack the symptom but not the illness. Move such as mandating a minimum wage of X$/hr for job Y doesn't increase the value of the resulting product of job Y. It merely decreases the value of X$ to the value job Y. So, eventually, their constituency suffer.This is coursed not problem with the OP's country alone. Merely a year ago, by widely published data, USA's living standard felt to that of 30 years ago. With the new administration, we climbed back but that is a short term thing. We need to develop and implement policies necessary to make sure that our productivity (in terms of value created) increase corresponding to the living standard we desire.I am retired. So, I have an overwhelming desire to ensure that the $X I saved for retirement continue to have the same value rather than seeing it decline to match the lower value of "value created by job Y". So, it is a problem not just for the working alone. UK (the OP's locale), USA, and probably anywhere else in the world all need better politicians.

author: Harb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2018, 10:39:05 pm
content: Quote from: David Chamberlain on May 24, 2018, 11:09:34 amI've actually got 2 that I own, but the 3rd one is going to have to go on long term payments lol.......I guess the main thing is you have to enjoy what you do, and thats worth something as well.I started out just working by myself and spent quiet a bit of time out in the field, which I really love the most....I just am the sort of person who likes it outside I guess........when I got into the OB business that kind of killed that, but I am retiring....sort of.....and I am again getting to do some subcontract outside stuff which again brings me joy.....So long story short, as long as you dont hate what you are doing, maybe a bit less money is ok......

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2018, 09:09:15 am
content: Quote from: David Chamberlain on May 24, 2018, 11:09:34 amBut Mr. High N. Mighty did not tell you it was an old black and white TV.Becoming an engineer for the money or to attract chicks is a bit short sighted really, especially if you end up living in a single room bedsit and your only choice in going on a date is sharing can of spam with the cleaning lady whilst watching Coronation Street on your 17 inch VGA computer monitor. Money does not buy happiness, but having a low VSWR on your home brew antenna can bring you great joy.Seriously, first and foremost people should only go into electrical/electronics engineering because they have a passion for it, not because of the money. Most engineers are comfortable, but never rich.

author: BNElecEng
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2018, 09:48:20 am
content: Quote from: DaveW on May 23, 2018, 10:55:13 pmMy feelings are along the same lines as DaveW.The company I work for is based around Bedford and their structure is along these lines. Of the roughly 55 employees, there are 10 engineers with varying levels of experience. A fresh graduate pretty much has to eat humble pie for a couple of years but once they start coming into their own and contribute in a meaningful way, their salaries begin to climb rapidly. After the 5-6 year experience mark, they can expect to earn over £45k.Graduates with a Masters or a PhD have slightly higher salaries, but it does taper off at the top end where experience counts more.The most senior engineer doesn't have any university education, only the training he received in Avionics in the air force. He is a walking library of information who is ready to teach any who want to learn.

author: a59d1
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 08:58:55 am
content: Quote from: BNElecEng on May 26, 2018, 09:48:20 amA driven, excellent EE with an MS from a reputable school in the US has a good chance of making above 50 k$ right out if they apply to a growing company. Is your cost of living very low or is your company contracting? I would definitely not even apply to a company if it took me 6 years to crest the 45 k$ mark. You must be hiring some awfully weak engineers.

author: IanMacdonald
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 09:08:47 am
content: In the UK, if you want to make a reasonable living you either need to be self employed or be an 'administrator' -The sort of guy who goes around ticking boxes on a clipboard.

author: BNElecEng
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 09:12:04 am
content: If you look at the original post, you'll see that this is exactly the topic being discussed. I don't believe the company I work for has bad hiring practices, the market simply is what it is.I personally have a good quality of life with my current salary, so perhaps the cost of living is a lot lower than where you are. I don't have to worry about healthcare for example.

author: a59d1
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 09:13:47 am
content: Quote from: IanMacdonald on May 28, 2018, 09:08:47 amIt looks like I misspoke. 45 k Pounds is equivalent to about 60 k$ these days, so they are about the same.

author: ChunkyPastaSauce
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 09:22:49 am
content: Quote from: a59d1 on May 28, 2018, 08:58:55 amIt's a lot higher I think, I checked the three 'reputable' public schools in my state and for MSEE median is 70k-90k starting, 100k if taking job out west.

author: gildasd
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 10:52:20 am
content: I have a few secondary school friends who are engineers in the UK and earn enough to own a residence in London. So they must be doing quite well.One works for an online retailer, another for a Defence contractor and the last one has a private practice (civil engineering if I recall correctly - we tend to talk girls, resulting kids and subsequent boring cars, not work, when we meet).That said, I do recall the harrowing stories of their University bedsits that made "the Young Ones" seem rather posh.

author: a59d1
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 11:34:15 pm
content: Quote from: ChunkyPastaSauce on May 28, 2018, 09:22:49 amFor sure, but there are only so many jobs at Google and Facebook. There are a few people I know whose starting salaries at FAANG were close to 200 k$. It isn't realistic for everyone to get one of those jobs.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2018, 11:43:13 pm
content: Quote from: gildasd on May 28, 2018, 10:52:20 amOnline retailer probably means a software job.Defence contractors don't generally pay well, except for software jobs.Civil engineering has tended to pay fairly well in the UK, although I believe the spread is quite wide.In the UK a mediocre person in software has tended to earn more than the smartest electronics people since the earliest days of software.

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2018, 02:30:58 am
content: The Plano/Richardson area of DFW is a good location. Lots of work and housing prices are quite modest. I bought an older 2500 sq ft house in Plano for $125K in 1993 or so and sold it in 1999 for about the same price just before the dot com bust. According to the papers there were about 80,000 unemployed EEs in the area after the bust.There was a piece in the paper about a guy who had been making $80k/yr, had a wife, 2-3 kids, jet skis, fancy cars and a $300-400k house. After the bust his wife had left him and moved with the kids to her parents and he was living in a homeless shelter. Everything else was gone.I also lived there the summer there were 43 days over 100. About the start of the 2nd week into this, a friend who had come from California said over lunch, "What's the big deal? We have air conditioning." To which I responded, "After a few weeks, you get the distinct impression mother nature is trying to kill you." He ran a tape measure 3 ft straight down into the cracks in his yard. It was still over 100 at 10 pm.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2018, 08:40:21 am
content: Quote from: rhb on May 29, 2018, 02:30:58 amPeople in Texas generally think of their house prices as long term stable, because there is little pressure from land shortage. However, prices in Plano are rising now, due to two factors. A lot of Asian engineers have migrated to Dallas, and go for homes in Plano where the better schools are. A number of high profile companies are relocating operations from California to Dallas, and the employees have lots fo cash after selling their Californian homes.

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2018, 03:29:19 pm
content: I visited a friend last year for his 60th birthday and was stunned at the development that has taken place north of Plano in the last 20 years. I'm sure it has affected home prices as will the next bust. But relative to California they are much cheaper.The prices that fluctuate the most are the McMansions. People buy more house than they can afford for too much money, then there's a bust and the McMansion values collapse. It would appear that buying a McMansion during a bust would be a good deal, but it's not. They typically are very expensive to heat and cool because of the 30 ft ceilings in much of the first floor area.

author: J Chien
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 02:00:37 pm
content: Health care, education, etc., are not for educated foreigners. Paid vacation days are not applicable if you want to be promoted faster. Therefore all favourable in the UK are not suitable for me (and other people like me)As an Asian, I didn't receive any social benefit (bloody hell). The only reason I stay here is that it's easier to find a job compared to the US (where the visa is harder to obtain).My friends who went to the US typically earn double the money I can get here.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 02:48:24 pm
content: Quote from: David Chamberlain on May 24, 2018, 11:09:34 amDoes your comprehension often have these "dropouts"?

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 03:58:49 pm
content: I have a couple of uni friends who work in IT in the London finance / banking sector. They earn well into 6 figure salaries. I could probably match them, if I worked 672 hours a week!To be honest, IT is probably a pivot that most people here could make and do well at, but meh, there is no where near the creativity level required for electronics design, and thats what I enjoy.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 04:00:59 pm
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on April 01, 2024, 03:58:49 pmThey need that amount of money. After all they need custom PPE in order to avoid smelling the stench. Think of it as danger money.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 04:08:23 pm
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on April 01, 2024, 03:58:49 pmThe finance sector is pretty much the only thing left in the UK that operates in world class volumes. You can't pay big R&D salaries when you have to spread that NRE over a modest volume of RE. You also can't afford to get they cheapest people when incompetence means millions of units could have a serious recall problem.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 04:24:32 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on April 01, 2024, 04:08:23 pmWhen that mob eff it up, they solve the problem by jailing thevictim. Start with Regina vs Munden, continue for a few decades, and you have the Horizon scandal.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 04:26:21 pm
content: Quote from: TK on May 21, 2018, 05:49:47 pmNot really, when the fact that the cost of buying or renting a place in the UK is much higher than the US.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 07:24:38 pm
content: Quote from: Zero999 on April 01, 2024, 04:26:21 pmIs it though? The cost of housing in USA, especially renting, has skyrocketed the past few years. (Cost of living there in general has.)I mean… I pay less to rent my apartment in Switzerland’s biggest city, in a desirable downtown area, than an equivalent unit would rent for in Baltimore, where I used to live, which is a decidedly third-rate city on a good day. Never mind a major city like NY, LA, SF, or Miami, where my Zurich rent would pay to sublet a bedroom — at best.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2024, 09:37:51 pm
content: If you think engineering salaries are low in the UK, you should come see what it's like in France.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2024, 01:34:46 am
content: Yes rstofer, silicon 'Valley' has all those special housing and freeway congestion issues, to the point now, that literally EVERYONE seems to move eastward, towards Nevada State, creating a weird 'infill' pattern in the Calif. Central valley. That soil-rich region was supposed to be providing food / agriculture.Many old friends, retired and moved (away), as I sit, unemployed, approx. 20 miles from the whole, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara city areas (where Intel and various aurospace companies did military or NASA projects.Funny thing, many jobs have evaporated, but not traffic congestion. Traffic congestion, you've got a salary related factor right there, (due to significant stretches of daily time spent).

author: EPAIII
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2024, 06:14:23 am
content: Boy you can say that again about some locations being very expensive to live in. I turned down jobs in California twice because of that. The salary offers were about 25% greater than what I was making at the times, but after my wife and I looked at some local houses in the area, we figured we would just go broke in less than a year. Accepted one offer on Saturday afternoon and called them back on Sunday to reverse that.California is probably the worse, but there are other areas where a fabulous salary is just a quick path to bankruptcy.Quote from: ajb on May 21, 2018, 06:48:38 pm

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 04, 2024, 03:38:53 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on April 01, 2024, 07:24:38 pmI live on the east coast of Florida. Rents for 1 bedroom apartments top $1,000 a month. Even renting rooms in houses can break $800 depending on location. 3 bedroom house rents can break $2500. AND, I live in a small town, ~20,000 people a little over an hour away from the Orlando area, not Orlando itself. When we bought our 3/2 house, 1590 square foot, in 2004, we paid $122,900. 2 years ago we had to have the house appraised again to change homeowner's insurance companies and it was valued at $325,000No major improvements but a newer roof and AC system and solar panels added. % wise, my son and daughter-in-laws house has appreciated even more because where they live is an up and coming place to move to, but they still can't buy a larger house because everything in their area has appreciated the same.

author: TimNJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2024, 01:07:32 pm
content: Quote from: ChunkyPastaSauce on May 28, 2018, 09:22:49 amYes, $50K would be a total insult for an MSEE in the year 2024. In fact, $50K is very close to an insult for a BSEE newgrad in 202. Granted, where I live, it’s very expensive, so I have a skewed perspective.I remember back 15-20 years ago when my brother was looking at colleges, I remember the number “$60K” floated around as a typical engineering salary. I guess that was a median salary at the time. At any rate, go take a look at an inflation calculator and even go back 5-10years and you’ll see the purchasing power of 50K is probably a lot less than you’re thinking, if your brain is calibrated back a few years.