re: Annual Raise, Exceeds Expectations, Engineer

I’m currently at my 3rd employer over these 10 yrs in industry, so I’m aware of making moves to get bigger bumps in pay.

I know a refinery ChemE with 12 or so years experience in Nola making ~$150k base, so I’m not too far below that after this years raise and considering the different market/location.

They did announce that the company’s base COLA for this year will be 4%. I might get a little above that based on performance, but it is disappointing, especially considering they gave only 3% last February.

I am talking to recruiters regularly and trying to glean comp data from them. Most of the feedback is that my salary or desired salary is higher than other companies would be paying.

They have given me about $20k in education reimbursement each of 2021/2022, but we have reached the agreed reimbursement limit, so that’s now gone. Getting part or all of that $20k as regular base comp will be a talking point with my supervisor. I plan to start discussing salary with my supervisor this go round

8% bonus was not paid in 2021 because of covid performance. I did receive it in 2022, but it will be very reduced this year due to company performance

Fwiw, my original OP was more inquiring about annual raises based on top performance. i understand career jumping is how you get the more substantial raises.

I’ve done a good bit of looking at competitor chemical companies on Glassdoor and search salaries and bonuses for their chemical engineering roles. Not sure how accurate this data is, but I compare pretty well, if not on the upper end.

I’m also located in an area that I like but small ChemE job market, and I’m not too keen to relocate to a bigger market. So I don’t have a ton of bargaining power unless I want to try to get another job offer for the sake of negotiating a raise.

For what it’s worth, a 2021 salary survey by the chemical engineering professional organization published the following median salary data based on years experience:

0-3 years $73k
3-5 years $92k
6-10 yrs $105k
11-15 yrs $120k
16-20 yrs $138k
21-25 yrs $157k
26-30 yrs $170k
31-35 yrs $165k
36-4 yrs $172k

In 2021, when this survey was issued, I was at $128k base with 9 years experience which would be on the upper percentile of that experience bracket above. This survey comes out again this June.

Chemical engineers make a good living, but they aren’t making the big bucks outside of management or business roles, which I already understand. Just wanted to share this for those surprised. Anyone doing work as a contractor chemical engineer could make more, but they have to pay their own benefits.