Civil Engineers Salary Analysis in 2024 PART 2
Comparing job satisfactions and gender based wages
Welcome to Part 2 of this deep dive into civil engineering salaries. In the previous post, civil engineering salaries were analyzed to compare the annual income in different countries and across the Civil Engineering sub-disciplines.
Link to the first part here:
For Part 2 of this series let's examine the weekly work hours in various geographic locations, job satisfaction across sub-disciplines, and gender-based comparisons..
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he first section of this article will look at job satisfaction rates across sub-disciplines, hours worked each week, and annual days off (PTO – paid time off). This section of the analysis will include data from all countries.
The second section will focus on 4 countries of interest: The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, and Australia; showing 2 charts per country.
The first chart breaks down the average (mean & median) salaries and weekly work hours in various locations (cities, or states) within a country.
The last set of charts gives us a snapshot of how salaries and parental leave differ between genders in each country.
Section 1 – Comparison of Job Satisfaction, Vacation Days, Weekly Remote Working days, and Weekly Work Hours across Sub-disciplines. Aggregate Data from all Countries.
The results show that the highest mean vacation days belong to forensics, aviation, and government sub-disciplines. This might be due to the periodic/seasonal nature of the work involved in these sectors. The limited sample size might cause inaccuracy with mean data. In general, the median number of vacation days seems to be around 20 per year for all sub-disciplines.
In terms of remote work, construction and field engineers seem to obtain the least remote work, which makes sense. Land development seems to work from home once a week on average. The highest remote workers based on the data are forensic, environmental, aviation, power, and water engineers. The rest of the industry works 2 days a week remotely.
Forensics continues to lead in job satisfaction, likely due to factors like the highest number of vacation and work-from-home days, as shown previously. However, other elements, such as the nature of the work, might also contribute to this high satisfaction. Overall, job satisfaction in the industry generally falls between 7 and 8 out of 10, except for building envelope engineers, who rate their job satisfaction lower, between 5.5 and 6.
Across the industry, civil engineers tend to work 40 hours per week, save for a few sub-disciplines. Construction works the most (45) hours per week, while aviation is close behind in second place (44).
The previous analysis (Part 1) showed construction engineers earning some of the highest wages in the industry, which aligns with the additional work hours. Construction also shows normal satisfaction despite the high work hours, suggesting that job satisfaction is not solely dependent on the number of hours worked but also on the nature of the work itself and other workplace factors.
Section 2 – Geographic breakdown of Average Salary, Weekly Work Hours, and Gender Comparisons.
Two things to note in general in this section:
The limited sample size may skew results. Locations with single digit sample sizes (n-values) should be taken with a grain of salt.
These results do not consider the cost of living in each location; choosing where to live should consider more factors than simply which location has the highest salary.
The parental leave values may be highly biased, as values vary from 0 to 365. It's highly possible that respondents answered with their best guess for how many newborn parental days are offered in their company.
1. United States
A. Annual Salary and Median Hours Worked per Week by State
United States: The US shows high variation in salaries across states. States like Iowa have high mean salaries but lower medians, indicating economic inequality or a few very high earners. Interestingly, hours worked per week don’t vary much across states, pointing to a consistent national work culture. Hawaii and Arkansas show the highest hours worked per week. Alaska (n=6) has the highest average salary and slightly higher than average hours worked per week, suggesting a good return on time compared to other states.
B. Salary and Parental Leave between Genders in the US
Comparing salary between genders, men seem to get paid about 2.6% more than women. The median number of maternity days offered by companies in the US is about double the number of paternity days offered.
2. Canada
A. Annual Salary and Median Hours Worked per Week by City
Canada: Cities like Vancouver and Toronto have the highest annual salary, while Vaughan, Prince George, and Hamilton tend to have lower annual salaries. In general, people work 40 hours per week in major Canadian cities, except in Montreal which hovers around 45 hours per week. Vaughan (n=6) seems to have the worst ratio in terms of salary for hours worked, but the limited sample size may be inaccurate.
B. Salary and Parental Leave between Genders in Canada
In general, Canadian civil engineering men seem to get paid about 6.8% more than women. Most of the sample data indicates that men in Canada typically do not receive any paternity leave, with a median value of 0 days. In contrast, women are generally offered more maternity leave, as reflected in higher median values. It's also possible that some respondents are unsure of the number of parental leave days available to them.
3. United Kingdom
A. Annual Salary and Median Hours Worked per Week by City
United Kingdom: The UK shows high variation in both salaries and weekly work hours. Southampton has the highest salary, yet also the highest working hours. Brighton and Reading also have high salaries, and relatively low work hours. Unsurprisingly, most of the respondents are in London (n=18).
B. Salary and Parental Leave between Genders in the UK
In the UK, the salary gap is narrower, with male engineers earning GBP 40,798 on average, while female engineers earn GBP 38,912. The gender gap in salary is relatively modest compared to other regions. However, the leave days show an unusual trend, with female engineers reporting an average of 10 days, while male engineers report almost no leave. This could indicate differences in how leave is reported or a reflection of different employment policies.
4. Australia
A. Annual Salary and Median Hours Worked per Week by State
Australia:
In Australia, regional differences in salaries are apparent, with Western Australia showing the highest mean salary at over AUD 175,000. Interestingly, this region also has the highest median hours worked per week, suggesting a direct correlation between longer work hours and higher salaries. This trend might indicate that in certain regions, the intensity of work directly translates to better financial rewards.
B. Salary and Parental Leave between Genders in Australia
In Australia, the mean annual salary for male civil engineers is slightly higher than that of their female counterparts, with males earning AUD 116,929 compared to AUD 102,500 for females. However, when we examine maternity and paternity leave, a stark difference emerges. Female engineers reported an average of 43 leave days, while male engineers only received about 11 days. This significant difference suggests that while there might be a pay gap, the leave policies in Australia are more favorable for female engineers, likely reflecting a stronger emphasis on maternity leave.
Thank you for reading Part 2 of this analysis! Part 3 will be released soon and will explore trends in work experience and salary, as well as starting salary trends across sub-disciplines over the past three years.
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