So, there’s a burning question on your mind: how much do electrical engineers make? The Bureau of Labor Statistics updates this information every year around May, and it just released its latest data.
In 2014, the average electrical engineer’s salary was $95,780. Inflation for this past year was about 2.5%. Did the average salary keep up?
Let’s examine the electrical engineering salary statistics from 2015. According to the BLS, the average electrical engineer’s salary in 2015 was $97,340, which is up approximately 1.6% from the average 2014 salary of $95,780. The median was $93,010, or up about 1.8% over last year’s median salary of $91,410.
But inflation ran 2.5%.
This means the electrical engineer’s salary, in general, failed to keep up with inflation. In other words, the average electrical engineer suffered a loss in purchasing power. Despite the average raise, his salary won’t go as far due to the effects of inflation.
I use the median CPI; it is less volatile because it strips out food and energy prices. It helps to more easily monitor the long-term inflation trend without getting distracted by the wild gyrations given to the standard CPI.
Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution remains the second-largest sector in terms of number of electrical engineers employed. In terms of density, it’s still number one.
For last year’s report (2014), click here.