New Zealand Engineering 1997 July

IPENZ Remuneration Survey 1997

Dr. Angela Bowey

Our fourth IPENZ Remuneration Survey produced 1078 responses, slightly more than last year. Almost all of the small categories have larger samples this year. Thank you for your support. For next year, we need more responses from specialists in computer systems, fire, natural resources, petrochemicals, and pulp/paper. The more questionnaires we receive the better the results of this survey; so please keep up the good work!

This has been a good year for more senior engineers (50+ points) if we judge by their salaries. The spread of salaries related to job points shows slightly higher base salaries at all levels. The lower quartile base salaries go from $30,000 (for 8 to 15 job points) to $87,700 (for more than 56 points) compared to last year's spread of $28,500 to $72,850. The upper quartile range goes from $34,000 to $137,500, compared to last year's $33,525 up to $115,000. Last year's median base salaries are included in the following table for easy comparison.

Variation in base salary by job points

The gap between lower quartile and upper quartile is narrowest at the bottom of the range - the bigger the job the greater the salary difference between those in the bottom 25 percent and those in the top 25 percent (in absolute and percentage terms).

This is even more marked when we compare total salary packages. At the top end of the scale (jobs scoring over 55 job points) the range between upper and lower quartiles is $70,000 (from $100,000 to $170,000), whilst for jobs scoring less than 16 points it is only $5,800 (from $30,000 to $35,800). This is consistent with the key feature to emerge from this year's survey, namely a trend towards increased rewards for those with demanding jobs and already high base salaries.

Salary increases last year

Increases in salary were more even this year, with an "across the board" median of four percent in all regions. However, the average increases were higher and more variable between regions, with Auckland and Wellington having the highest averages. The average being substantially higher than the median means that there were some very high increases. These increases again reflect the trend towards extra reward for those near the top of the engineering profession.

This possibly reflects a policy of paying lower salaries to new recruits and relatively higher salaries to key employees. The increase at the top end is particularly notable in Greater Auckland and Greater Wellington; and the `Rest of the South Island' shows across the board increases.

Variation of median remuneration by job

There is a wide spread of base salaries between jobs, reflecting the greater responsibilities of jobs such as management. The lowest median base salary was $50,000 (maintenance and also manufacturing/process/production) and the highest was $77,000 (general management). The same groups were the lowest and highest for total remuneration package, $54,000 and $92,000 respectively.

In terms of changes since last year, median remuneration for manufacturing/process/production, planning, and research and development were all lower this year. Investigation, feasibility studies/environmental impact, administration/support, general management, and sales/marketing were all higher this year than last.

Variation of remuneration by specialism

Median base salaries vary between $50,830 (for geotechnical specialists) to $70,500 (for computer system specialists). Compared to last year, the median base salary is higher for specialists in communications, computer systems, energy, electrical, electrical power, oil/gas, and transportation. It is lower this year (compared to last year) for specialists in electronics, geotechnical (but the sample is small), food processing (but this is compensated by the total remuneration package, which has not reduced), industrial (again, the total remuneration package has not reduced), mechanical, structural, manufacturing (dramatically down), and petrochemicals and pulp/paper (the last two are small samples). In general terms, the more traditional areas of industry and engineering have lost out to the "high-tech" areas.

Effects of size

There is still very little variation between salaries based on organisation size, with a range from $50,000 to $64,000 for median base salary, and from $70,000 to $74,000 for total remuneration package. Medians were reduced in the very small (under six) and medium sized organisations (26 to 100) but increased where there was a large number of employees (over 1500) and for those with six to 25 employees.

Last year was the first time we changed the format of our question about supervisors' review of your questionnaire. Thirty one percent this year had discussed their answers to our questionnaire with their supervisor, and 96 percent of these supervisors/managers agreed that the questions were answered accurately. Fifty percent had not discussed their answers with their supervisor; eight percent had no supervisor or manager; 11 percent were self-employed. Our survey gains credibility with your employers when a high proportion of respondents have discussed their answers with a supervisor/manager, so we hope more of you can do this next time around, please.

Thank you for responding to our request last year to make sure you included your salary information. Our special request this year is for those who can't decide which answer to tick. Please help us next year by trying to tick only one box per answer. We cannot score you under more than one heading, and you are the best judge of the right selection.

This year's survey has produced a very comprehensive picture of remuneration of professional engineers. We will be publishing more details in later articles. Our full report is available by completing the coupon below. Please encourage your employers to purchase their copies. This helps us to fund the survey.

IPENZ Remuneration Survey - Detailed Report Order Form

Fill out and post to: Remuneration Survey Orders, PO Box 12-241, Wellington, New Zealand, or fax to: +64 4 473 2324

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