Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report...SPIE 2011 Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report 1...

2011Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report

2011Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report

The International Society for Optics and Photonics

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IntroductionIn April and May of 2011, SPIE conducted a Global Salary Survey of the optics and photonics community—the largest survey of its kind. The goal of the survey was to capture the full breadth of employment and compensation patterns across regions, disciplines, and types of organizations.

SPIE sent survey invitations via email to its global database. Questions addressed professional focus, level of education, type of employer, earnings level, and much more. Over 6,800 valid responses were gathered, with 96% of participants located in North America, Europe, and Asia. Respondents from Latin America/Caribbean, Oceania, and Africa provided the balance of data. Ninety-three countries are represented in the sample.1

This report summarizes the survey’s main results. It also updates an earlier version of the report by adding a section on gender and a country-by-country breakdown of median salaries. Students have been excluded in this update. For complete survey methodology, please see page 12.

SPIE 2011 Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report 1

Survey Responses by Region

North America Europe AsiaLatin America and the Caribbean

OceaniaAfrica

49.8%

2.4%

0.7%

18.8%

1.2%

27.2%

n=6803

Location North America and Oceania (Australia/New Zealand) stand out as the regions with the highest salaries, with median earnings well above those of all other areas. North American median incomes are 68% higher than Europe, double those of Latin America/Caribbean, and more than four times greater than Asia’s. This data does not account for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

A large portion of regional income gaps is explained by the level of economic development of countries within each region. Splitting European and Asian countries into “higher-income” and “lower-income”3 subcategories narrows the gap between North America/Oceania and higher-income subsets of Asian and European countries. Asia’s wealthier countries’ median income is 18% below North America’s, with Europe at 46% below.

Median Salary by Location

2 SPIE 2011 Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report

Key Findings • The median salary for survey respondents is $80,000,2 with a very wide distribution.

• The factors most associated with higher salaries are North American location and non-university employment.

• Median salaries are 33% higher for men than for women, with the largest gap in the corporate sector, and the smallest gap at government employers.

• The highest-paid discipline is aerospace engineering/research, with a median income of $110,000.

Africa (n=46)

Asia (n=1,279)

Latin America/Caribbean (n=160)

Europe (n=1,848)

Oceania (n=82)

North America (n=3,388)

$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000

$105,000

$97,200

$62,350

$51,494

$23,142

$13,265

Median Salary by Location, with Asia and Europe by Income Level

Median salary by countrySwitzerland $119,982 United States $107,000 Australia $100,710 Japan $99,004 Israel $88,500 Germany $87,000 Canada $83,200 Sweden $81,923 Belgium $79,750 Austria $72,500 Finland $72,500 Netherlands $70,990 United Kingdom $66,640 France $65,250 Brazil $64,134 Singapore $63,506 Korea, South $60,665 Spain $58,000 Italy $49,300 Taiwan $40,000 Mexico $34,418 Romania $16,530 Russian Federation $14,318 India $13,224 China, Republic of $12,376 Iran $10,800

Table includes all countries with sample size of 30 or more.


$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000

North America (n=3,388)

Oceania (n=82)

Asia, higher income (n=231)

Europe, higher income (n=1,495)

Latin America/Caribbean (n=160)

Asia, lower income (n=1,048)

Europe, lower income (n=353)

Africa (n=46)

$105,000

$97,200

$89,104

$72,000

$51,494

$17,985

$15,470

$13,265

When broken down on a country-by-country level, most results are unsurprising—countries from the highest-earning regional groups dominate the top of the list; lower-income countries are clustered at the bottom. There is, however, a high degree of diversity within regional groups. For instance, high-income European countries range from Italy at a median salary of $49,300 to Switzerland at $119,982.

In comparison to broader populations within surveyed countries, the optics and photonics community fares quite well. For instance, the average earnings of United States survey participants is $107,000 versus the average population at $52,507. For Poland the gap is narrower, at $19,624 in the survey versus $18,380 in the country as a whole.4

2010 Average Gross Wages by Country(full-time year-round, from Wikipedia)4

$60,000

$50,000

$40,000

$30,000

$20,000

$10,000

$0


Academic Non-academic Premium for Non- Employers Employers academic Employment

Africa $10,730 $26,723 149%

Asia, lower income $13,923 $28,651 106%

Europe, higher income $61,653 $81,127 32%

North America $85,000 $111,400 31%

Oceania $89,640 $110,700 23%

Europe, lower income $17,782 $21,477 21%

Asia, higher income $79,204 $92,816 17%

Latin America and the Caribbean $51,307 $55,947 9%

Employer Type The median salary of employees at universities and research institutes is less than any other employer segment. This relationship holds across all geographic regions: people working in industry and government earn more. In lower-income Asian countries, median wages at non-academic employers5 is more than double that of universities and other research institutes. Conversely, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the salary premium is only 9% at non-academic organizations.

University/research institute (n=2,805)

Civilian government (n=488)

Self-employed/consultant (n=71)

Military/defense (n=269)

Company/corporation (n=3,170)

$52,944

$92,110

$96,000$100,000

$100,000

Median Salary by Employer Type

Median salary and premium, by location, for academic and non-academic employers


Median Salary by Primary Discipline

Salary by DisciplineAerospace engineering/research, sales, and systems engineering/research are the disciplines with the highest median earnings, averaging $103,000. Civil/environmental engineering/research, biomedical engineering/research, and computer science/software engineering/research fall at the opposite end of the spectrum, with an average salary of $54,904.

Salary gaps between disciplines are partly explained by their distribution across academic and non-academic institutions. The highest-paying disciplines are most prevalent in non-academic organizations, with the top three disciplines represented by 619 non-academic organization respondents versus 116 working at academic institutions. Conversely, the three lowest-earning disciplines are represented by 581 respondents at academic organizations versus 401 at non-academic employers.

Within non-academic organizations, the range of median salaries is $84,000-$115,046. For academic organizations, the range among employees is $23,375-$85,550. The relationship between higher-pay and non-academic employment holds across all disciplines.

$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000

Aerospace engineering/research (n=258)

Sales (n=255)

Systems engineering/research (n=222)

Marketing (n=150)

Manufacturing engineering/research (n=243)

Optical systems engineering/design (n=655)

Interdisciplinary engineering/research (n=168)

Chemical engineering/research (n=119)

Illumination engineering/research (n=48)

Mechanical engineering/research (n=208)

Materials engineering/research (n=273)

Laser engineering/research (n=368)

Optical design (n=144)

Other (n=631)

Electrical engineering/research (n=564)

Nanotechnology engineering/research (n=247)

Photonics engineering/research (n=442)

Physics (n=826)

Computer science/software engineering/research (n=469)

Biomedical engineering/research (n=427)

Civil/environmental engineering/research (n=86)

$110,000

$85,000

$84,000

$82,760

$80,560

$80,000

$79,750

$72,645

$71,640

$66,681

$66,011

$65,250

$33,450

$86,550

$100,000

$100,000

$99,502

$90,000

$90,000

$88,500

$87,000


Higher- Lower- Non- income income academic Academic Countries Countries Employers Employers

Aerospace engineering/research $116,000 $15,470 $115,046 $78,500

Systems engineering/research $107,000 $27,783 $107,630 $65,000

Optical systems engineering/design $102,000 $15,470 $101,300 $50,000

Interdisciplinary engineering/research $101,250 $35,883 $108,000 $50,400

Electrical engineering/research $101,240 $20,523 $98,851 $55,780

Illumination engineering/research $101,000 $34,094 $92,500 $54,660

Sales $100,500 $28,636 $100,000 $85,550

Chemical engineering/research $100,000 $32,552 $100,000 $46,254

Marketing $100,000 $20,837 $100,000 $48,000

Mechanical engineering/research $98,750 $22,443 $100,000 $56,283

Manufacturing engineering/research $97,600 $23,205 $96,000 $27,407

Laser engineering/research $97,575 $15,470 $98,800 $47,000

Optical design $94,000 $22,341 $91,700 $35,298

Materials engineering/research $93,625 $34,728 $100,000 $47,780

Other $93,000 $20,138 $90,000 $66,217

Photonics engineering/research $87,300 $17,583 $93,500 $49,996

Nanotechnology engineering/research $86,500 $15,470 $99,000 $57,097

Computer science/software engineering/research $86,000 $20,056 $84,000 $52,000

Civil/environmental engineering/research $84,153 $10,056 $85,577 $23,375

Physics $83,000 $17,666 $100,225 $56,000

Biomedical engineering/research $75,100 $19,000 $100,000 $52,900

Country income level also has an impact on median salaries of different disciplines. In the lowest-paid category, civil/environmental engineering/research, only 48% of respondents work in higher-income countries. In contrast, 88% of the aerospace engineering/research workers are located in higher-income countries.

Within higher-income countries, the range of median salaries across disciplines is $75,100-$116,000. Within lower-income countries, the range is $10,056-$35,883. The wage gap between higher- and lower-income countries is consistent across all disciplines.


Median salary by discipline for country income level and academic/non-academic employers

GenderMen earn 33% more than women, with median salaries of $83,200 versus $62,400. Men also outnumber women in this survey, composing 87% of the sample.6 The wage gap between genders varies greatly across locations, employer types, and years of employment. The largest wage differences are most associated with high-income Asian countries, employment in a company/corporation, and employment duration of 26-30 years.

Geographically, income disparities are most pronounced in Asian higher-income and Latin American/Caribbean countries, with gaps of 87% and 81%, respectively. Oceania falls at the opposite end of the spectrum, with women out-earning men by 7% in this small sample (n = 74).

The regions with the highest number of survey respondents fall at the middle of the wage-disparity range, with a 34% salary premium for men in North America and 25% in higher-income Europe.

The wage gaps discussed here are consistent with fi ndings in other surveys of workers in scientifi c fi elds, including Nature’s global survey of scientists.7 Nature found that “Men’s salaries were 18% to 40% higher than women’s,” depending on the country sampled.

Premium for Men Women for Men

Asia, higher income $92,816 $49,502 87%

Latin America/Caribbean $57,463 $31,727 81%

Asia, lower income $17,421 $12,376 41%

North America $110,000 $82,000 34%

Europe, higher income $72,500 $58,131 25%

Europe, lower income $18,379 $15,034 22%

Oceania $98,010 $105,300 –7%

Categories with sample sizes below 10 have been omitted.


Median salary by gender and location


Company/corporation $103,250 $75,000 38%

University/research institute $55,000 $47,200 17%

Civilian government $92,818 $92,110 1%

Military/defense $100,000 $100,000 0%

Categories with sample sizes below 10 have been omitted.

Wage gaps between men and women also vary greatly depending on the type of employer. Women working in military/defense and civilian government earn wages that are nearly equal to men at similar employers. The bulk of survey respondents, however, work at employers where median salaries are greater for men, with a 38% gap in the company/corporation category and a 17% difference at universities/research institutes. Combined, these two larger categories account for 88% of respondents.

Median salary by gender and employer type


Less than 5 years $46,411 $40,000 14%

5 to 10 years $65,000 $56,000 14%

11 to 15 years $90,000 $84,500 6%

16 to 20 years $100,000 $84,100 16%

21 to 25 years $110,000 $87,250 21%

26 to 30 years $115,720 $87,000 25%

More than 30 years $120,000 $96,500 20%


For additional content, including breakdowns of gender by primary discipline, visit spie.org/salary

Wage gaps driven by years employed are smaller than those associated with location or employer type. Over the fi rst 10 years of employment, male employees’ median wages are 14% greater than women’s. The largest gap occurs in the 26–30-year segment, with men out earning women by 25%. The narrowest gap is in the 11–15-year period, with only a 6% premium for men.

For instance, inequality is higher in North America than in high-income Europe, with North American men earning 15% more for the fi rst 5 years and 26% more over years 5-10. In contrast, men in high-income Europe earn 8% more than women for the fi rst fi ve years, then only 1% more during years 5-10.

Median salary by gender and years employed

Other Factors Infl uencing SalaryOther factors that infl uence salary include job title, years employed, and size of organization.

Unsurprisingly, top organizational leaders enjoy the highest salaries while technicians anchor the bottom of the range. Seniority also tracks well with salary levels, although the relationship between organization size and income is uneven.

Median Salary by Job Title

Median salaries are highest at the largest organizations, those with more than 5,000 employees, followed by the smallest organizations, those with less than 10 employees. Unsurprisingly, these categories of employers are highly concentrated in higher-income countries.

Median Salary by Years Employed

$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000 $160,000

Director/Executive (n=615)

Academic Dean, Director, V.P., Provost (n=69)

Supervisor/Manager (n=916)

Lead/Senior level (n=1,816)

Full Professor (n=527)

Staff (n=1,581)

Assistant or Associate Professor (n=965)

Technician (n=314)

$142,400

$130,000

$104,293

$99,004

$88,454

$60,900

$47,850

$39,150

$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000

More than 30 years (n=821)

26 to 30 years (n=701)

21 to 25 years (n=742)

16 to 20 years (n=728)

11 to 15 years (n=1,103)

5 to 10 years (n=1,300)

Less than 5 years (n=1,389

$120,000

$115,000

$108,750

$99,000

$88,400

$62,400

$46,400


$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000

More than 5000 employees (n=1,953)

Less than 10 employees (n=295)

2501 – 5000 employees (n=883)

51 - 100 employees (n=396)

11 - 50 employees (n=651)

101 – 250 employees (n=645)

251 – 1000 employees (n=1,118)

1001 – 2500 employees (n=862)

$100,000

$83,238

$81,000

$78,150

$78,000

$70,000

$67,683

$66,768

Median Salary by Size of Organization

Percentage of organizations located in higher-income

countriesLess than 10 employees 88%More than 5000 employees 86%11 - 50 employees 79%2501 – 5000 employees 77%51 – 100 employees 76%101 – 250 employees 70%1001 – 2500 employees 68%251 – 1000 employees 66%


MethodologyIn April and May of 2011, SPIE sent email survey invitations to its global customer database. Surveys were completed online using Vovici’s enterprise survey tool. Results were fi ltered to yield 6,803 valid responses. Response was voluntary and open. An iPad raffl e and early access to this report were offered as incentives to encourage participation. Any response lacking salary data was removed, as were duplicates and responses from students. Microsoft Excel and SPSS were utilized to create summary statistics and related disaggregations. An earlier version of this report was released in August 2011. The exclusion of students from the current, updated, version accounts for any differences in summary statistics.

1. Sample countries, with number of respondents per country: United States (3371), China, Republic of (534), Germany (372), United Kingdom (299), Canada (225), France (196), Italy (196), Spain (172), Japan (158), Russian Federation (143), India (134), Korea, South (106), Netherlands (105), Taiwan (102), Israel (92), Australia (80), Singapore (78), Brazil (76), Sweden (57), Belgium (56), Switzerland (55), Mexico (47), Austria (45), Iran (39), Finland (37), Portugal (36), Romania (36), Turkey (33), Czech Republic (30), Ireland (28), Ukraine (27), Denmark (26), Malaysia (24), Chile (23), Pakistan (22), Greece (21), Poland (21), Egypt (20), Norway (19), Armenia (18), Lithuania (14), Argentina (13), Colombia (11), Saudi Arabia (11), South Africa (11), Hungary (10), Belarus (9), Bulgaria (8), New Zealand (7), Slovenia (7), Latvia (6), Slovakia (6), Thailand (6), Algeria (5), Kuwait (4), Croatia (3), Estonia (3), Ethiopia (3), Iraq (3), Jordan (3), Kenya (3), Lebanon (3), United Arab Emirates (3), Azerbaijan (2), Bangladesh (2), Bosnia (2), Ecuador (2), Georgia (2), Iceland (2), Indonesia (2), Liechtenstein (2), Malta (2), Moldova (2), Morocco (2), Nepal (2), Nigeria (2), Peru (2), Philippines (2), Qatar (2), Serbia (2), Uzbekistan (2), Bahrain (1), Costa Rica (1), Cyprus (1), Dominican Republic (1), Monaco (1), Mongolia (1), Solomon Islands (1), Sudan (1), Swaziland (1), Tunisia (1), Uruguay (1), Yemen (1).

2. U.S. dollars are used throughout. Local currencies were converted in July 2011 using market exchange rates. Salary fi gures include total yearly compensation, both base pay and bonuses.

3. The higher-earning regions, North America and Oceania, are composed of countries with similarly high per capita gross national income (GNI) levels. Europe and Asia are composed of a much broader mix of income levels. For example, the survey sample for Asia includes Pakistan, China, and Japan, with per capita GNIs of $1050, $4260, and $42,150 respectively. Similarly, Europe includes Ukraine, Poland, and Denmark, at $3010, $12,420, and $58,590.

Subcategories were created by using the per capita GNI of New Zealand as the lower boundary of the higher-income subcategory, at $29,050. New Zealand has the lowest per capita GNI in the North America and Oceania groups. This $29,050 per capita GNI threshold is used throughout this report when referring to “higher-income” and “lower-income” countries. For information on per capita GNI, see http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifi cations/world-bank-atlas-method

4. Average is used for comparison because median wage data is unavailable for most countries. The average wage data is drawn from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage, retrieved 18 November 2011.

5. The category “non-academic employers” is composed of company/corporation, military/defense, self-employed/consultant, and civilian/government. “Academic employers” is composed of university/college and other research institute.

6. The sample size for gender is smaller than for other variables due to narrower availability of responses. The gender sample of 6366 represents all valid responses for which gender is available.

7. Gene Russo, “For Love and Money,” Nature, June 2010, pp. 1104-1107.

Notes:


Statement of Purpose

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light.

About the Society

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving approximately 180,000 constituents from more than 170 countries, the Society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth.

SPIE annually organizes and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacifi c.

In 2011, the Society provided more than $2.3 million in support of scholarships, grants, and other education programs around the world.

SPIE publishes the SPIE Digital Library, containing more than 313,000 research papers from the Proceedings of SPIE and the Society’s 9 scholarly journals with around 18,000 new papers added each year, and more than 120 eBooks from the SPIE Press catalog. SPIE Press publishes print monographs, tutorial texts, Field Guides, and reference books. SPIE also publishes a wide variety of open access content.

Membership includes Fellows and Senior Member programs. The Society has named more than 900 SPIE members as Fellows since 1955, and implemented its Senior Member program in 2008.

The SPIE awards program serves to recognize outstanding contributions from individuals throughout the scientifi c community regardless of membership status.

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