General Engineering Salaries Worldwide

If you're considering a career in general engineering, you must consider several factors, location or industry. Follow your dreams, find the right location with the lifestyle you seek, then find a general engineering job that pays well.
Nader Mowlaee

If you’re considering a degree in engineering you must first consider these important questions before doing anything further:

  1. What long term career interests and passions do you hold?

A college student should not become one simply by picking what “sounded” cool. Picking a degree and major should be based on one’s interests and what he or she is most passionate about.

  1. Is your life principles and values in line with the degree?

One of the mistakes some new college students make is enrolling simply to accomplish a requirement in life – go to college and finish college if he or she is lucky enough! But choosing a career in engineering starts with completing an engineering degree and in order to complete one with flying colors, the student must be passionate about it. You must truly see value in your engineering course of choice in order to succeed once out of college.

  1. What’s the general engineering industry outlook after a few years?

By the time the student graduates, will there be engineering jobs for him/her? What’s the general engineering industry outlook according to the economy? What is going to happen with these new global tariffs? Will businesses continue hiring engineers? Will the student get paid well? Will salaries go down?

So these are additional questions everyone should ask about the future of engineering. No one should go to college without a purpose or the slightest clue as to why you would take up an engineering career. These are just three questions among many others that one may have in mind.

The best thing for you to do is to keep your options open. Choices can be changed, they are not set in stone. Now that this is out of the way, it’s time to take a look at general engineering salaries around the world.

How well are engineers paid?

According to Michigan Tech, general engineering salaries only go higher as years go by, with an average entry-level salary of about $91,010 as recorded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

Most Popular

How about the rest of the world? Here’s a list of different engineering salary salaries around the world.

Japan

 

Mechanical Engineer

¥3,585,185

Civil Engineer

¥3,802,865

Software Engineer

¥4,655,982

Aerospace Engineer

¥12,785,181

Petroleum Engineer

¥15,531,294

   

Canada

 

Mechanical Engineer

C$64,2013

Civil Engineer

C$65,011

Software Engineer

C$71,828

Aerospace Engineer

C$75,164

Petroleum Engineer

C$98,358

   

Russia

 

Mechanical Engineer

RUB 612,772

Civil Engineer

RUB 836,265

Software Engineer

RUB 1,625,875

Aerospace Engineer

RUB 1,338,151

Petroleum Engineer

RUB 1,625,570

   

China

 

Mechanical Engineer

¥154,171

Civil Engineer

¥84,000

Software Engineer

¥189,055

Aerospace Engineer

 ¥303,656

Petroleum Engineer

¥368,878

   

Germany

 

Mechanical Engineer

€ 48,567

Civil Engineer

€ 38,750

Software Engineer

€ 51,636

Aerospace Engineer

€ 53,896

Petroleum Engineer

€ 52,000

   

Australia

 

Mechanical Engineer

AU$72,070

Civil Engineer

AU$72,553

Software Engineer

AU$76,100

Aerospace Engineer

AU$76,395

Petroleum Engineer

AU$99,271

   

Brazil

 

Mechanical Engineer

R$98,151

Civil Engineer

R$92,428

Software Engineer

R$83,538

Aerospace Engineer

R$74,513

Petroleum Engineer

R$170,000

   

France

 

Mechanical Engineer

€ 40,225

Civil Engineer

€ 39,101

Software Engineer

€ 41,908

Aerospace Engineer

€ 37,000

Petroleum Engineer

€ 49,200

   

Saudi Arabia

 

Mechanical Engineer

SAR 93,041

Civil Engineer

SAR 94,970

Software Engineer

SAR 119,867

Aerospace Engineer

SAR 196,906

Petroleum Engineer

SAR 246,398

   

South Korea

 

Mechanical Engineer

₩48,561,239

Civil Engineer

₩49,575,573

Software Engineer

₩44,000,000

Aerospace Engineer

₩56,638,160

Oil and Petrochemical Engineer

₩52,199,370

This is an overview of the different engineering salary around the world in various engineering fields. Some countries offer higher salaries and others offer lower salaries for the same field of engineering. You can carefully decide which type of engineering you would like to study and get a job in.

Types of Engineers That Make the Most Money

Engineering salary cannot be measured based on one location only.

The highest-paid type of engineer is dependent on which country one is considering. The engineering salary in Japan may be different in Canada. One type of engineer may be paid lower in one country but is paid higher in another country.

In this portion of this article, the focus will be on the types of engineers that make the most money in the U.S. Here are five types of engineers and their average salary:

  1. Petroleum Engineer – A Petroleum Engineer is paid an entry-level base salary of $94,600 per year, which increases to $175,500 per year in mid-career.
  2. Computer Engineer – A Computer Engineer is paid an entry-level base salary of $63,970 per year, and in mid-career, the salary goes up to $150,130.
  3. Nuclear Engineer – A Nuclear Engineer gets paid an entry-level salary of $99,920 per year and in mid-career, the salary goes up to $142,290.
  4. Aerospace Engineer – this type of Engineer gets a base salary of $97,480 per year and later in the middle of his/her career, gets up to $143,360.
  5. Marine Engineer – at the early stage of a Marine Engineer’s career, the base pay is at $73,900 and later, in the middle of his/her career, the salary goes up to $123,200.

These are some of the engineers that get paid well in the U.S. Take note that all engineering jobs have promising offers in terms of pay but may also be dependent on the location, the country, the company, and the skills and experiences of the candidate. The more leverage you have, the more you can command your pay rate.

A Look Back to Mechanical Engineering Jobs in 2017

Engineering jobs can range from entry levels to supervisory or managerial levels. Mechanical engineering has been a good start for many engineers today. Aside from the good pay and the demand in their services, mechanical engineering is a very flexible field of engineering because of the skills and experiences most Mechanical Engineers have or acquire over the years.

Looking back in 2017, a Mechanical Engineer got paid an average salary of $85,880 per year. The lowest salary this engineer would ever get was $68,270 and the highest was $108,580. Fast forward to today, this engineering field is one of the highest-paid in the industry.

In Conclusion

Candidates of engineering universities should learn to weigh things with measurable data. It is best practice to look at the career or industry a few years after college is over.

Will the profession still exist? Will it still pay good salary? Of course, the research and analysis results will not always be perfect but having a basis for decision making when starting out is one important aspect to succeeding in any industry.

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