Posting gains: CONTROL's 2006 Salary Survey

IT HAD TO happen eventually. Good news, that is. After years of receiving tiny, incremental pay raises, the process control engineers and other technical professionals answering Control’s 16th annual Salary Survey have finally made some substantial gains in compensation and other job-related areas. They’re also less worried about job security, and report their companies are doing more hiring and making fewer layoffs.

And the good news doesn’t end there. In seeming contradiction to natural laws, the respondents have even gotten younger—at least as a collective group.

The survey’s few negative results were that control engineers and their colleagues are working a couple more hours per week on average, and that their firms are continuing to increase outsourcing activities.  

Paydays and Profiles
The respondents to 2006’s e-mailed salary survey reported a dramatic upward shift in their numbers in the two highest salary categories compared to the year before (See Figure 1 below). Basically, respondents earning salaries above $80,000 increased significantly, while those below this threshold decreased slightly. Similarly, those receiving bonuses of 6-10% of their salaries increased from 19.5% in 2005 to 29.0% in 2006.

FIGURE 1: HIGH SALARIES UP

SOME BONUSES BIGGER
(Click image to enlarge)

Besides improving their compensation, 2-4% more respondents in the 2006 survey reported receiving benefits than the year before in each category. These include medical and dental insurance coverage, life insurance, disability, pension and 401K plans, tuition reimbursement, stock options, profit sharing, company cars, flex time, and telecommuting. And, while three weeks of vacation remains the norm, those receiving four weeks increased from 24.4% in 2005 to 28.2% in 2006.   

Demographically speaking, process control engineers remain overwhelmingly white, male, U.S. residents, who are married with children (See Figure 2 below). Interestingly, a more than five-percentage-point jump occurred among respondents identifying themselves as married from 84.6% in 2005 to 90.5% in 2006. Another close to five-point increase was reported by respondents with four-year undergraduate degrees; 48.9% had four years of college in 2005, while 53.2% had four years in 2006. In addition, those possessing electrical engineering degrees increased from 34.4% in 2005 to 38.3% in 2006.