Petroleum engineers make the most money of any engineering field, but chemical engineers have the highest job and career satisfaction.

With companies like Exxon Mobil reporting record profits, is it any wonder that petroleum engineers rank at the top of the engineer pay scale?

Male chemical engineers lead in job satisfaction ratings, while chemical engineering majors report the highest levels of career satisfaction.

Petroleum Engineers First, Civil Engineers Worst in Pay

The average starting salary offered to college graduates with a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering topped $77,000 for the Class of 2020 – nearly 32 percent higher than the $59,000 average for engineering majors overall. Grads with chemical engineering degrees ranked second by a wide margin at $65,000, while civil engineering graduates rounded out a list of seven majors at $51,000 (see Table 1).

Petroleum engineers also ranked first in average on-the-job earnings at $120,000, with computer hardware engineers topping chemical engineers for the #2 spot. Civil engineering majors finished at the bottom of the starting salary list, and civil engineers virtually tied with mechanical engineers for last place in average pay at $81,000 (see Table 2).

Engineer Job Satisfaction and Career Satisfaction by Field

A January 2020 Mechanical Engineering article, titled "Satisfaction," reported the findings of a survey that examined job satisfaction for engineers. Overall, more than one out of five engineers responding to the survey said they were "very satisfied" with their job.

The survey categorized engineers in four fields and also identified responses from men versus women. Male chemical engineers led all groups, with 28 percent reporting a high level of job satisfaction, while their female counterparts registered a low of 19 percent. Men and women reported similar levels of being "very satisfied" with their jobs in the other three engineering fields: civil & architectural (27 percent of men and 26 percent of women) electrical & computer (24 percent each) and mechanical (23 percent each).

In a 2020 survey by Writemypaperbro.com, nearly 11,000 college graduates who earned bachelor's degrees from 2010 to 2020 were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their career path. Less than half (47 percent) of respondents with any kind of engineering major reported satisfaction with their career path. Chemical engineering majors led all majors, with 54 percent reporting they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied," while just 46 percent of civil engineering majors and 40 percent of environmental engineering majors reported career satisfaction. (Satisfaction levels for other engineering majors were not reported.)

Table 1: Engineering Starting Salaries by Degree Major

Selected Average Salaries Offered to Class of 2020 Bachelor's Degree Graduates

• Engineering majors overall = $58,669
• Petroleum engineering = $77,278
• Chemical engineering = $64,889
• Mining & Mineral engineering (including geological) = $63,207
• Computer engineering = $60,396
• Electrical engineering = $59,512
• Mechanical engineering = $58,110
• Civil engineering = $51,321

Source: Writemypaperbro.com study https://writemypaperbro.com/, Fall 2020 Salary Survey.

Table 2: Engineer Salaries by Engineering Field

Average Annual Wages for Selected Fields, May 2020

• Engineers overall = $85,659
• Petroleum engineers = $119,960
• Computer hardware engineers = $101,410
• Chemical engineers = $91,670
• Electrical engineers = $86,250
• Mining & Geological engineers (including mining safety) = $82,080
• Civil engineers = $81,180
• Mechanical engineers = $80,580

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References

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