Engineers in SA Earn More than Counterparts in US/UK/AUS

Experts regularly warn of the impending doom that South Africa’s own brain drain will bring to the country’s economy in the near future, and with over 300 qualified engineers leaving South Africa every year (according to Fin24 stats a few years ago), it seems that the pool of competent engineers, critical to the development of any country, might soon be completely exhausted.

But why are South African engineers emigrating, when the data clearly suggests that South Africa should be the one draining the engineering brains of other countries?

Sunny South Africa not only offers engineers more earning potential, in terms of purchasing power, than other English-speaking countries (and by quite a large margin compared to countries like Australia and England) as well as higher chances of employment.

Data on the average salaries, after tax, within the major engineering fields – mechanical, electrical, chemical and civil – show that engineers in South Africa eventually earn much more than their counterparts in the traditional South African immigration Meccas: Australia (Auks), the United Kingdom (aUKs), and the United States of America (aUkS) – or AUKS countries.*

Although engineers in South Africa initially earn slightly less than those in the AUKS countries, after 5 to 10 years of experience, those in the fields of mechanical-, civil-, and electrical engineering start earning more than their counterparts in AUKS. Only chemical engineers in the US consistently earn more than South Africans – and then only  barely.

The pay differences between the countries become even more stark the more experience an engineer amasses. After more than 20 years of experience an average South African electrical engineer can expect to earn around R487,000 after tax while his peer in the UK will earn less than half of that – a measly R215,000*.

*For an explanation of the process by which all the data used in this article was generated and for the full datasets in spreadsheet format, click here.

Generally, the pay-scale trends indicate that SA and the US are the top two countries in terms of earning potential for engineers (SA beating the US marginally) with Australia a distant third and the UK by far the worst country for engineers to generate wealth.

These revelations might be surprising, at least to those who  believe that the land of opportunity and riches are anywhere but South Africa, but it shouldn’t be if you look at the relative unemployment rates for engineers in  the compared countries.

Equipped with a  basic understanding of the economic law of supply and demand it’s easy to see why SA and the USA have such high relative engineering salaries – their demand for engineers far outweigh their supply – as indicated by their respective unemployment rates of 3% (US) and less than 1% (RSA).  

The latter unemployment figure might seem  contradictory in a country that has one of the highest national unemployment rates in world at 25.5%, but what tends to be forgotten is that mostly it is the unskilled labour force that is unable to find work – the unemployment rate for university degrees is less than 5%, while  experts in job placement suggested in 2013 that for engineers the unemployment rate could be as low as 0.4%.

Alternatively, the unemployment rate for Australian engineers is 5.5% (some saying as high as 12.2%) and for the UK it’s 8.6%, therefore also explaining why the earning potential for engineers in those countries are so low – employers aren’t interested in hiring any new engineers.

So if you are a South African engineer contemplating that most excruciating of decisions, leaving your beautiful land of birth – the country of Madiba and Mrs Balls; Muizenberg’s beaches and Mpumalanga’s mountains –  remember that in addition to the amazing year-round weather, the unbelievably friendly people and the gorgeous scenic beauty, there is also the potential for a quality of life that is incomparable to most other English-speaking countries.

And even though crime is still a major issue, remember that the world is changing and nowadays you are 30% more likely to be murdered in Paris than Cape Town if you are middle class.

But then again, that’s South Africa for you – interesting, contradictory and a little bit funny at times.

For more interesting article and infographics about SA, visit www.safro.info