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Computer Engineer Salary
Computer engineer salary ranges depend on the “usual factors” of education: experience, location and industry. If any three factors are identical, the final one determines an equal or different salary from someone else in exactly the same position.
How Can I Earn the Highest Computer Engineer Salary Possible?
For example, New York state and Massachusetts have an annual salary difference of only $50 in their top computer engineer salary averages; that’s pretty close. However, that top 10 percent salary average of over $115,000 per year is not earned by newcomers or holders of only undergraduate degrees.
Someone working in Company X for 15 years with a bachelor’s degree will not earn as much as someone who holds an online masters degree with 10 years’ experience in the same company. That master’s degree-holder won’t earn as much as someone who has an offline or online PhD with the same number of years of experience. Experience and education count, and they count all the way to the bank. Start getting your experience while attending school with part-time employment and internships whenever possible.
On the other hand, someone with the same degree and experience and who works in the same industry in New Mexico won’t earn as much as that New York state worker. Most often, salaries for people of identical education and experience levels are adjusted up or down for cost of living. While New Mexico isn’t the most inexpensive area in which to live, costs aren’t nearly so high as in New York or in Massachusetts, and the computer engineer salary differences note that.
This occupational specialty requires extensive education; most online degree programs that grant a bachelor’s degree would take four years in a campus-based environment. The Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering requires six years in a real-world environment because it joins electrical engineering and computer sciences—both specialty areas, not just one. The salaries paid to highly qualified computer engineers reflect that intense education.
Wage Averages
The mean wage—only the middle 50 percent of computer engineering salary wages—averages $101,600 per year from everywhere in the country, regardless of education level or experience. That figure includes all four factors and takes the middle half of salary figures, then averages only that 50 percent. That amount does not reflect the highest or the lowest computer engineer salary figures.
In order, the top-paying states in computer engineering salary averages are New York state at $115,240, Massachusetts at $115,190, California at $111,230, Maryland at $100,870 and Texas at $95,650 per year.
The highest-paying industry list does not include the Silicon Valley or Washington state programmers: Computer engineering deals with hardware, not software, remember?
The top-paying industries include Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rentals with a mean wage of $128,380 per year, Data Processing and Hosting at $112,830 annually, Architectural and Engineering Services at $112,250 each year and Electrical and Electronic Goods Merchant Wholesalers at $107,790 per year.
The highest employment densities for this occupation, for full comparison, may or may not correlate with the top mean computer engineering salary figures or the top-paying computer engineer salary industries, listed above. The states with the most computer engineers per 1000 employment positions include, in order, California, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and Maryland.
