r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Commercial_Kale753 • Oct 16 '22

Salary State of the ChemE address

I see a lot of people saying that a ChemE degree is not worth getting due to the low salaries in the industry after probably going into debt to get through college. Could you please share to put perspective on what the numbers are looking like in the industry. People with non traditional ChemE paths are also included. Whether it’s management, consulting,etc. How has the progression been in terms of time, responsibilities and salaries? Please when sharing use the following criteria:

Industry: Ex. Manufacturing

Job Title: Ex. Process Engineer

Geographic Area: Ex. Southeast or Atlanta, Ga

Progression:

Base Salary: Ex 70,000

Total Comp: Ex. 80,000( sign-on bonus + 401k match)

Option to work from home: No/Hybrid/Fully

Benfits: Ex. Flex time, Tuition Reimbursement etc...

Please if you don’t enjoy these then ignore. For everyone else feel free to share!

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u/uniballing Oct 16 '22 edited Oct 16 '22

I don’t think anyone is complaining about low salaries in ChemE, but I’ll take your survey

Industry: O&G

Title: Project Manager

Area: West Texas

Base Salary Progression (annual salary, 2014-2022): $76k in 2014, $77k, $79k, $83k, $87k, $100k, $105k, $110k, $128k in 2022

Total comp: $128k base, $30-40k bonus, $60-80k RSUs

Option to work from home: hard no, but I use this as an opportunity to set boundaries that keep my weeks in the 40-45 hour range

Benefits: 10% 401k match, 5 weeks PTO

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u/Commercial_Kale753 Oct 16 '22

By low I meant compared to the cost incurred for college. Thanks

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u/aalec74 Oct 16 '22

The cost compared to the price of college? I mean most schools don’t charge extra for different degrees or majors so it’s based on your choice of school. A teaching degree and chemical engineering from the same school would cost the same amount, yet teachers get paid away less. ChemEs are towards the top of earners, at least in the US they are. Are you expecting engineers to make 300k right out of college? Not trying to sound like a dick, this just sounds so different from how my friends and I feel about our salaries.

Also for context I went to a very overpriced private school so I’m definitely dealing with the cost of the degree lol

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u/Commercial_Kale753 Oct 16 '22

Yes, chemical engineers are towards the top earners. I didn’t mean to make it sound like that but sometimes some of them are lowballed with 50k salaries when their college degrees cost the same 50k a year from a state school. Thanks for the insight though.

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u/aalec74 Oct 16 '22

That’s fair but I don’t really think that’s an industry issue. In every industry there’s companies that low ball potential employees. It shows that they don’t value their employees like they should. I think colleges need to have resources available for students to be able to research salaries and learn how to negotiate in order to avoid that situation.

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u/Commercial_Kale753 Oct 16 '22

I totally agree with you

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u/uniballing Oct 17 '22

It’s not fair to call out teachers as a class of wholly underpaid college graduates. My wife was making over $60k as a teacher, which is more than most foreign ChemEs and even some US ChemEs

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u/aalec74 Oct 17 '22

I didn’t mean to call them out. I just meant them as an example of a profession that typically makes much less than an engineer while still requiring the same education (undergrad degree) , if not more education. How much experience did your wife have while teaching? Even in higher cost of living areas I’ve not heard of teachers making that much in their first year. Chemical engineers should typically expect to make 60k or more their first year, regardless of cost of living. Some do make less than 60k but everything I’ve seen indicates that’s very rare.

Foreign ChemEs can often make less but I’m just trying to make a comparison in the US. There’s way too many differences when looking at other countries to get a fair comparison.

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u/uniballing Oct 17 '22

She quit teaching after 4 years, made over $60k the whole time. Major LCOL metro area in Texas. She was a paid a bit more than standard teachers because she was on a longer contract due to summer electives.