15 Engineering Salaries in 2020: Which Field is on the Rise this Year

The figures for the mean entry-level salaries come from Payscale.com. Those for the mean yearly salary and top 10 percent come from the United States Department of Labor. All were neatly organized by Michigan Tech. 

1. Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering, also known as medical engineering, is a field that combines biology and engineering in order to find solutions that will improve the field of medicine and healthcare in general.

Forbes recently described it as "the high-paying, low-stress STEM job you probably haven’t considered.”

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $60,958

Mean Yearly Salary: $95,090

The top 10 percent: $144,350

2. Chemical Engineering 

As Stanford University explains, Chemical Engineers "conceive and design processes to produce, transform and transport materials."

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $65, 618

Mean Yearly Salary: $114,470,

The top 10 percent: $169,770

3. Civil Engineering

Civil Engineers design and oversee the construction of some of the world's biggest government-funded projects. They construct and oversee infrastructure projects in the public and private sector.

Source: National Labor Stats 

Mean Entry Level Salary: $56,152,

Mean Yearly Salary: $93,720,

The top 10 percent: $142, 560

4. Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering is divided into two separate fields; Hardware Engineering and  Software Engineering. Both build, test, and improve the physical and digital aspects of computing.

Computer Hardware Engineers

Source: Computer Hardware Engineers

Source: Software Developers, Systems Software

Mean Entry Level Salary: $71,007,

Mean Yearly Salary: $117,840,

The top 10 percent: $172,630

Computer Software Engineers 

Mean Entry Level Salary: $68,436,

Mean Yearly Salary: $114,000,

The top 10 percent: $166,960

5. Construction Management

Engineers working in the field of Construction Management will oversee the planning, design, and construction of a project from its beginning to end.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $55,795,

Mean Yearly Salary: $103,110,

The top 10 percent: $161,510

6. Electrical Engineering

As LiveScience explains, Electrical engineers work on a wide range of components, devices, and systems. These include anything from minuscule microchips to huge power station generators.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $64,936,

Mean Yearly Salary: $101,600,

The top 10 percent: $153,240

7. Environmental Engineering

A career in Environmental Engineering will see you specializing in biology, construction, and mathematics to be able to plan how to best protect and utilize a natural environment.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $55,884,

Mean Yearly Salary: $92,640,

The top 10 percent: $137, 090

8. Electrical Engineering Technology / Mechatronics

Much like the broader field of Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering Technology and Mechatronics requires a specialization in several technologies.

As Michigan Tech describes it, "at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, and computing, mechatronics specialists create simpler, smarter systems."

Source: Recruiter

Mean Yearly Salary: $86,690,

The top 10 percent: $133,280

9. Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Geological and Mining Engineering oversees the safe and efficient mining of materials and resources from the Earth.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $61,977,

Mean Yearly Salary: $98,420,

The top 10 percent: $151,030

10. Geospatial Science and Technology

As Radford University describes it, Geospatial Science is a discipline that focuses on using information technology to understand people, places, and processes of the earth. 

Source: National Labor Stats 

Mean Entry Level Salary: $49,571,

Mean Yearly Salary: $68,340,

The top 10 percent: $101,400

11. Materials Science and Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering utilizes nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, energy, manufacturing, as well as other engineering and science-based solutions to tackle real-world problems.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $65,806

Mean Yearly Salary: $96,930,

The top 10 percent: $148,110

12. Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering is one of the oldest and broadest fields of engineering. It generally encompasses the design, development, and use of machinery.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $65,806

Mean Yearly Salary: $96,930

The top 10 percent: $148,110

13. Mechanical Engineering Technology

Essentially, a career in Mechanical Engineering Technology will see someone designing and building the tools used by mechanical engineers.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Yearly Salary: $99,310

The top 10 percent: $154,720

14. Surveying Engineering

Surveying Engineers are tasked with determining the best place to construct large man-made objects. As Ferris State University points out, James Cook, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln were all surveyors.

Source: National Labor Stats

Mean Entry Level Salary: $48,360

Mean Yearly Salary: $66,440

The top 10 percent: $102, 220

15. What do some of the biggest companies pay their engineers?

Google is one of the highest paying companies for Software Engineers. According to GlassDoor, the company pays Software Engineers an average total pay of $147k including bonuses, with an average base pay of roughly $132k.

As per Glassdoor, Amazon salaries for Software Engineers typically range from $50,153 to $197,563.

According to PayScale, Senior Mechanical Engineers at SpaceX are the highest non-management earners at the company with an average annual salary of $108,273.

Tesla software engineers, meanwhile, can earn anywhere from $122,019 to $160,000, according to Dice, while Mechanical Engineers at the company can expect to earn an average of $99k.

Finally, the highest-earning engineering job at Boeing, according to PayScale, is that of Chief Engineer with an average annual salary of $167,971.