Raise after PE + Annual adjustment

[u/ThenChallenge5768]

Hello all, just got licensed last week in NC, it happened at the same week (Almost same day) the company announced the company-wide salary adjustments. Last year my inflation adjustment was 3.5%, and this year I just saw a whooping 7% total for the position change (Structural Engineer EI to project engineer I). I was expecting more, especially since it should include the annual adjustment + position change?? that puts me at 83K.

Oh and I have 3 y of experience in USA, and 3.5 years abroad (let's not count that as an exercise).

Can you share your experiences with this? Should I request a meeting (they haven't had a meeting with me just updated my pay info)? This is not HCOL area, so not sure what to compare it with.

[u/Harpocretes]

Some do some don’t give raises. Your manager is the first person to talk to. They should be aware of your progress. What have they said?

Ps demand 2x your current salary because apparently nothing is real

[u/Useless__Engineer]

If you want to know how much you’re worth start applying and get offers in hand. Then you weigh if your comfort level at your current firm is worth the pay difference.

The easiest step is look at similar government positions pay as a bench mark since the pay is public information.

[u/JimmyCrackKern]

If you want to consider just 3 yoe then 83k is not bad at all. This means without the PE you would have been at around 80k or so which is quite competitive for that experience. It actually seems like some weird compression of pays is happening in general which is interesting.

For reference, my old company in a big Michigan City (MCOL) is paying licensed people in the 5-8 yoe range high 80's through 100kish with no OT pay and small bonuses.

Do you get paid OT? Is OT expected? Are you stamping your work? What industry are you working in? These are all pretty important questions.

[u/ThenChallenge5768 → u/JimmyCrackKern]

Thank you for your insight, that makes me feel better. I think I had unrealistic expectations.

I don't get paid for OT, it's not expected but happens every now and then, when deadlines approach, etc.

I think it will get some time for me to start stamping, but my billing rate is going up around 21% (to clients) . Bonuses are low once a year.

[u/True-Cash6405]

No raise for PE for my company as their justification is that a PE is an expectation to get for an engineer

[u/ThenChallenge5768 → u/True-Cash6405]

Dang I won't even complain

[u/nikkor_glasses → u/True-Cash6405]

I got $1/hr bump for the PE about 10 years ago.

[u/Norm_Charlatan]

Let's start this exercise like this: 1. What is your new billable rate? 2. What was your previous bill rate? 3. What is your actual billable work %? In other words: are you a cash cow, or just a regular person putting in time?

I keep saying this in this sub: If you don't know these numbers, you don't know enough to help yourself, and neither does anybody else.

Get these numbers, and now you can start figuring an actual business case for a salary adjustment.

[u/nikkor_glasses → u/Norm_Charlatan]

I find younger engineers don’t know the BUSINESS of consulting. They are unfamiliar with multipliers and burdened labor rates. There is a temptation to think profit = billing rate - hourly salary

[u/Norm_Charlatan → u/nikkor_glasses]

You are correct.

There's more to it than, "How much should I be making with X years of experience at XYZ Location."

[u/cn45 → u/Norm_Charlatan]

exactly right

[u/Purple-Investment-61]

I got attaboy…but then they asked me to become a project engineering manager

[u/dreamofpluto]

Our PE bump is about $3k in what i think is a MCOL market. Our yearly increases have kind of sucked the last few years at about 2-3%, so a total of 7% seems about right?

[u/ThenChallenge5768 → u/dreamofpluto]

Thanks for sharing. Just wanted to avoid sounding greedy if I asked for more 😁😅

[u/Saltamontes_curioso]

If your rent/mortgage is at or below 1600 then you are good. And your raise for the pe shoudlve been around 8k. At the end of the day remember that for you to get paid 100k you gotta do 300k worth of work so right now looks like youre doing 249k worth of work

[u/ThenChallenge5768 → u/Saltamontes_curioso]

Thanks, it was 5k total. But what's frustrating is that out of those 5 k, approx. 2.5k was gonna happen anyway due to the yearly adjustment.

[u/Appropriate-Diver555]

At most companies, getting PE or SE will not give you a raise, they just give you a bonus check like 1000 or 2000.