Why are chemical engineers paid so less?

[u/Illustrious-Art-55]

They work at dangerous sites, their work includes many complex operations, its way more complex then writing some code in AC room and the companies they work for? They earn in millions, still Chemical engineers are not paid good say in terms of IT industry or even automobile for that matter.

[u/Mvpeh]

ChemE used to be high paid and high salary cap, but it has fallen off pretty heavily.

Its still up there, but if you are a motivated individual, a business degree can make you more.

[u/campionesidd]

Depends on the country. In the US, it’s one of the highest paid engineering majors.

[u/johnnyboy9990]

Bruh what

[u/cyber_bully]

Just by how this is written I can tell you’re from India. The answer to your question is that there are millions of Indian engineers willing to work for nothing so they undercut any market willing to let them in. Some are good, many are shit, but there are 10s of millions of them. Each willing to work for slightly less than the next.

[u/Illustrious-Art-55 → u/cyber_bully]

I hate this fact and to add to that, most of the Indian engineers will switch up their fields right after college which essentially renders their knowledge gained in college as essentially useless which produces low quality crap engineers.

[u/admadguy]

Whether they are paid well or not depends on where you are. Your post history suggests India? So the salaries won't be comparable to US for ChemE. To be fair nowhere compares to US For ChemEs

I am not sure whether you believe ChemEs in India are poorly paid as a whole, or compared to say Software crowd. I'll say this though, lot of developing countries do Chemical production that the west doesn't want to, but still needs the products. Usually hazardous processes, that are too expensive from a regulatory standpoint in the west, this is not strictly moral but it's the way the world is. This also means being a ChemE in said developing countries is a stable job because those products are still needed everywhere.

having dealt with Chemical Engineers from many places, I can still say they are still paid well in terms of the broader economic parameters of their countries. Maybe not as well as software, but that's a different kettle of fish. You also have issues with job stability in software, less so in heavy engineering. ChemE and even auto are those places where your value immensely grows with experience. You can stay technical for much longer than software where outside of a few, most have to end up in management-y roles.

You also need to put in more effort while writing posts, rather than looking like a tweet.

[u/Illustrious-Art-55 → u/admadguy]

Yes, I am from India.
Thank you for the insights, will really try to improve the structure of my post from next time.

[u/MuddyflyWatersman]

. I would argue with me not being paid as good as some programmer. Millions? companies earn billions..... and it goes into growth and paying dividends to stock owners.. sounds like you got sour grapes.

[u/CHENWizard]

Most of these companies are beholden to their shareholders to deliver profits. The most profitable companies pay their employees more. If you’re not getting paid well as a chemical engineer, you need to move companies OR you’re stuck in your role because you haven’t been able to move companies

[u/MuddyflyWatersman → u/CHENWizard]

companies only have to pay their employees enough to keep them.... That is the goal they are a commodity on paper that HR manages. If they need really top level employees then they do not want to lose them because they're more difficult to replace...... If they have lower level employees they care less... and they pay less

beholden to share owners?? do you understand who owns the company.... those are the OWNERS .... they want to return on their investment5

[u/CHENWizard → u/MuddyflyWatersman]

This too. That could be OPs problem as well. If a company is dying for top talent, they’ll pay top talent what they’re worth. (Or if they really really need to fill a position)

[u/Terrible-Concern_CL]

I’ve literally never heard this

[u/owowthatreallysucked]

I'll be very honest, I think that there's so many graduates being pumped out that the demand is dramatically decreased, and so employers will pay less. But if your genuinely intelligent, you will be rewarded. Skill always pays

[u/Illustrious-Art-55 → u/owowthatreallysucked]

Skill always pays. You are quite right about that. What do you think is a measurement of skill in a Chemical Engineer?

[u/owowthatreallysucked → u/Illustrious-Art-55]

I wouldn't know, I'm starting university next month 😁

[u/Illustrious-Art-55 → u/owowthatreallysucked]

You are in for a ride. I hope its ChemE since you are in this sub. Whatever it is, do your 100% in whatever field you take. best of luck

[u/owowthatreallysucked → u/Illustrious-Art-55]

Thank you. Yeah it's chemE. Don't worry, I've basically self studied to get into uni, I'm sure it won't be that bad...

[u/MuddyflyWatersman]

salaries do not compare between countries. many countries have free medical care, government retirement plans, etc engineers in overseas divisions are in some part of the world are often shocked at what US engineers make..... but everything is more expensive in the US and we have to fund a lot of things ourselves. at overseas plants in some part of the world, we pay for our employees travel to and from the plant, we provide for them to live on site so they don't have to travel every day, we provide all their food for while they're living on site..... they have free health care, they get government food, and they retire early too....55 is old..on govmt pay...... so yeah they're not paid nearly as much.

[u/Illustrious-Art-55]

Actually I wrote the post in a hurry, so I can see the grammar and the structure may be shit and may come off as a lazy post which I think it is. Sorry for that guys.

[u/AICHEngineer]

Is it? I just hit six figures at 25 yrs old, chemE class of 22, moved on to my second job after 2-3 yrs experience

[u/Illustrious-Art-55 → u/AICHEngineer]

Really? Where do you work at? I would love to know your roadmap. Thanks

[u/AICHEngineer → u/Illustrious-Art-55]

Got a bachelors, graduated making 78k at an EPC doing midstream O&G/Chemicals like ammonia and fuels like LNG and LPG, got a few 5-6% raises, job hopped to L/MCOL midwest metro for another EPC company, working in the power sector now

[u/AICHEngineer → u/Illustrious-Art-55]

Very common in the USA for a chemical engineer to graduate and immediately make the average household income as a new grad. Thats a big ROI for paying for a bachelors degree. Then you get paid more as you gain experience and can parlay into higher wages via job hops

[u/MuddyflyWatersman → u/AICHEngineer]

higher wages come with time. you really have to get promoted to get a real raise and every time you get promoted those raises compound each other. by the time you're 65 you will be making 2 to 3 times this starting salary ... due to compounding of promotional raises even if you only get inflation the rest of the time.