Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008 - (Page 32)

SALARy SurvEy taBlE 1. averages at a glance Overall average age – 46.8 years US average age – 48 years Average age of non-US designers – 42 Percent males responding – 86.1% Percent females – 13.9% Average US base salary – $81,165 Average US base salary for women – $80,279 Average US bonus percentage – 6% Average non-US base salary – $ 48,839 Average bonus percentage non-US – 8.9% Percent that received a salary increase in the past year – 72.2% Percent that have the same job as last year – 90.7% Percent who were laid off in the past year – 4.3% taBlE 2. Stand Out Details Youngest designer – 24 years old from IL Oldest designer – 69 years old from CA Lowest salary – Pakistan, followed by Vietnam and India Highest salary – USA, followed by Canada and Denmark rienced a layoff in 2008, down from the 5.2% seen in 2007. (TABLE 1) The average age of designers in the US did not advance this year, indicating there may be more young engineers entering the workforce. For the past few years, the average age of our survey respondents advanced by 1 year, indicating an aging designer pool. For the first time in years, this trend appears to be reversing, with a notable number of new, young engineers and designers pursuing PCB design / engineering as a career. For 2008, the average age for US survey respondents was 48 years old, the same as in 2007. The youngest designer was 24 years old and hailed from IL; and the oldest, from CA, was 69 years old (taBlE 2). One of the trends we follow each year is the impact of education on salary. This year, advanced degrees, including MSEE, MBA and PhDs, played a big role in increasing the average salary of these degree recipients. For the first time, BS/BA recipients had higher salaries than their BSEE counterparts, earning $88,324 on average in the High School 1- or 2-year AS Degree College (No Degree) BA/BS Degree BSEE Degree Advanced Degree $81,343 (8.2% of respondents) $80,984 (32.8%) $83,778 (29%) $88,324 (10.7%) $85,203 (12.3%) $107,392 (7%) US, up $3,122 over the BSEE degree holders (FiGurE 3). The salary range across educational backgrounds from high school diploma only through a bachelor degree was very tight. Designers with no college education earned slightly more than the US average, $81,342 and more than their AS-degreed counterparts in this survey. Years on the job played a bigger role in the salary than did education, until we looked at advanced degree. US designers with an advanced degree had an average salary of $107,391, more than 30% higher than the US average salary without the advanced degree. Most companies support continuing designer education through conference attendance and tuition reimbursement. Over 60% of the respondents (FiGurE 4) said the company they work for supports these types of educational opportunities. Going hand-in-hand with supporting education, most of the designers who participated indicated they had excellent benefit programs (FiGurE 5) including health and dental insurance (> 80%) and life insurance and 401K plans (> 75%). US designers unanimously noted the companies they work for offer health insurance. The technology that designers are working on is advancing rapidly. FiGurE 6 shows a comparison of the types of technologies that 2007 designers where using compared to the 2008 reported technology levels. Many of the advanced technologies showed significant growth. Most notable include BGA usage, up nearly 17% compared to 2007. BGAs were used by 61.3% of the respondents in their 2008 designs. The HDI/microvia category was up 11.2 % to a usage rate of 45.7% with still less than 50% of designers actively engaged in the use of microvias in their designs in 2008. The co-design areas of FPGA, ASIC, ICs and packaging all experienced sig- Health insurance Dental insurance Life insurance 401K plan Vision plan or insurance Cafeteria 49% 36.8% 32.5% 31.1% 28.8% 21.2% 6.3% 6% Stock purchase plan Exercise room/equipment Profit sharing Retirement plan Relocation expenses Sabbatical Day care facilities 63.9% 87.7% 81.1% 78.1% 76.8% FiGurE 3. US designers’ salaries compared to their educational background. Classes at conferences Tuition reimbursement On-the-job training Company-sponsored classes College classes Mentoring Not applicable 13.6% 8.6% 47% 46.4% 37.1% 67.2% 61.9% FiGurE 4. Company sponsored educational opportunities. 32 FiGurE 5. additional company benefits. DECEMBER 2008 printEd CirCuit dESign & fAB

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI Global Sourcing EMC for the Real World Interconnect Strategies On the Forefront Final Finish Forum Test and Inspection Electronic System Design Data Management 101 Designers Take on Technology Challenges in 2008 PCB Signal Integrity, Power Integrity and EMC Challenges What’s in a Name? Ad Index PCB Dielectric Materials for High-Speed Applications Off the Shelf Marketplace BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008

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