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U.S. IEEE Members' Median Income Tops $100,000,
IEEE-USA Salary Survey Reveals

WASHINGTON (05 December 2003) — The median salary for U.S. IEEE members topped $100,000, according to the latest IEEE-USA Salary & Fringe Benefit Survey.

Median incomes from primary sources — base pay plus any self-employment income, commissions, or bonuses — for U.S. members working full time in their area of professional competence increased from $93,100 in 2000 to $101,000 in 2002. When accounting for inflation and stated in 2000 dollars, 2002 purchasing power was $96,677, an increase of 3.8 percent.

"Despite sharp declines in demand for electrical, electronics and computer engineers, the IEEE's U.S. members have held onto the gains in pay they achieved in recent years," IEEE-USA survey analyst Richard Ellis said. "Members were able to stay ahead of rises in the cost of living and achieve further gains in their real incomes."

The survey also mirrors recent unemployment trends. The number of members reporting involuntary unemployment jumped from less than one percent in 2001 to four percent in 2003. This is the highest level of member unemployment ever recorded, more than double the levels reached in the recession periods of the mid-1970s and early 1990s. Nevertheless, U.S. IEEE members were out of work at a much-lower rate than their non-IEEE counterparts.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rates for all electrical and electronics engineers reached an all-time high of 7.0  percent in the first quarter of 2003, and stood at 6.7 percent in the third quarter. The third-quarter jobless rate for computer hardware engineers increased to 6.9 percent, while the rate for network and computer systems administrators reached 7.6 percent.

The survey results reflect typical levels of compensation for the membership as a whole. Most individuals have done better because, in addition to improvements in the general pay scale, they have also obtained raises that reflect increases in their skills and levels of experience. Further, the survey shows wide variations in the compensation of otherwise similar people. Pay for members with similar specialties and job functions, types of employers, geographic locations, education and amount of experience varies by more than $50,000 between those at the lowest and highest ends.

"This is clear evidence," said IEEE-USA's Ellis, "that sheer skill and general mastery of the work is still the key to top pay, and is much more important than choices of specialization or other variations in career paths."

The Web-based survey is based on 2002 data from the largest number of complete responses (11,137) since the survey was first administered in 1973, and is the IEEE's most accurate portrait of U.S. member compensation. The survey can be taken any time, and members who do so receive free one-year access to the IEEE-USA Salary Service. This career-management tool, along with the survey, is available at www.ieeeusa.org/careers/salary/. It provides U.S. IEEE members with an individual salary calculator for each year they take the survey, and additional features — such as a personal salary history — are scheduled for introduction in 2004.

A sophisticated compensation product for employers, the IEEE-USA Salary Database, is currently under development. Further information will
be available at www.ieeeusa.org/careers/salarydatabase/.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., created in 1973 to advance the public good, while promoting the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. For more information, go to www.ieeeusa.org.

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Last Updated: 10 November 2003
Staff Contact:  Chris McManes, c.mcmanes@ieee.org