Process Engineering--The State of Pay

Nancy Bartels is Control's managing editor. You can her at [email protected] or check out her Google+ profile.The last four years have been a bumpy ride. The economy suffered a body blow from which it is only now recovering slowly. The political scene is rancorous both nationally and globally. Mother Nature has been on a tear, leaving death and destruction every place she can. Some of the major names in the process industries have blotted their copybooks badly with industrial accidents that could and should have been prevented. Technological change—everything from smart phones and tablets to 3-D printing—continues to disrupt the way we've always done things. Last year's "eternal verities" have proven ephemeral.

And yet the results of our salary survey remain remarkably similar, with year-over-year changes in most cases being statistically insignificant. Process automation employees are experienceing the same joys and disappointments as previous years. The same salary benefit and other workplace trends are holding.

That's both good news and bad news. On the good news side, pay, benefits and job satisfaction all remain reasonably good, especially when compared with other industries. Process automation has been holding its own in a very tough economy. The bad news is that apparently, the industry hasn't had much success in dealing with some troubling trends, especially the aging workforce and weakness in recruiting younger workers to the discipline.

Start the Slideshow to see what the numbers look like this year.