| CATEGORY NAME |
QUESTIONS |
ANSWERS |
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Do your surveys include position descriptions? |
Yes, all of our surveys contain position descriptions, except the Executive Engineering Compensation Survey and Non-Cash Benefits Survey. |
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Do you provide maturity curve information?
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Yes, we do provide salary data by "years since degree" in our Engineering, Architectural, Scientific, and Executive Engineering Surveys. |
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I'd just like to know what the projected salary budgets are for this year and/or next year. |
In each of our surveys we have analyses of salary movement over the past year. First, we look at movement in firms that participated in both surveys (current and last year's). This comparative analysis is the most accurate, given that it represents movement in the same jobs from the same firms. Second, in the "Salary Trends" sections we report firms' current and projected salary increase percentages. |
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In your Engineering Salaries Survey, at what position level is professional licensing required? |
Professional licensing is first mentioned in that survey's position description section at "Engineer 5" licensing required as "may be required". Also, consulting-engineering firms tend to be the only industry group that makes professional licensing a requirement. In practice, individuals working toward licensing will tend to achieve it by "Engineer 4". |
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I only need one page or section of a survey. Can I purchase it separately? |
Our surveys are complete books and are not sold by page or section. |
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What are the effective dates of data in your surveys? |
Please click on our survey schedule page to see this information. |
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Do you have an "xyz" metropolitan area data cut? |
If you go to a given survey's webpage here at the site, you will see a "Geographic Areas" button that will take you to the full list of metro-areas individually reported. |
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Can your surveys tell me how much a "discipline" engineer or scientist is being paid in a given metro-area or region? |
Within the Engineering and Scientific Surveys discipline salary data is analyzed nationally and by industry group, but we are not able to cut the data as finely as by metro-area. Using the national and industry group discipline data you can extrapolate a discipline's salary differential and then apply that differential to the given position's overall metro-area or regional salary data. |
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Do you survey a certain discipline of engineer or scientist? |
Yes, we report data for many different
disciplines of engineer or scientist. Go to the Engineering
Salary Survey or Science & Lab Salary
Survey pages for lists of those disciplines. |
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Do you report turnover rates in any of your surveys? |
Yes, we report turnover rates in the salary trends section of our Support Services Salaries Survey. It shows voluntary and in-voluntary turnover percentages as well as the overall figures. |
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Do you publish starting salaries paid to recent college graduates? |
Those rates are found in our Architectural, Engineering, and Scientific Salary Surveys. Each of these surveys has a section of starting salaries for graduates with a bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. In addition, we also report various discipline hiring rates for individuals with five years of experience. |
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Can your surveys tell me what a President (or other executive) of a consulting firm is paid based on percentage of ownership and firm annual revenue? |
Yes, our Executive Engineering Compensation Survey reports data by percentage of ownership and annual firm revenue ranges. |
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Does the data in your salary surveys include benefits? |
In addition to our salary surveys we publish our Non-Cash Benefits Survey that provides a complete analysis of all major benefits. For example, this survey provides an analysis of annual costs of benefits per employee. Click here to see the many benefit categories we cover. |
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What position titles in your books are exempt or non-exempt? |
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides the guidelines for determining exemption/non-exemption; therefore we do not make this determination in our surveys. However, most of the positions reported in our surveys with "annual" base pay may be considered exempt, while those positions we report with "hourly rate" pay may be considered non-exempt. Please note that in each survey, except the Executive Engineering Comp. Survey, our analysis of Overtime Pay Practices by position title shows how firms are actually paying for overtime. |
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| DEFINITIONS |
What are the definitions of the professional disciplines reported in the Engineering and Scientific Surveys? |
We do not define them, but let reporting firms determine employees' disciplines by their area of specialization, either educational or functional. |
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In your surveys what do you mean by "annual total compensation" and "annual total earnings"? |
The glossary of terminology, found in back of each survey, provides these and other definitions. "Annual Total Compensation" figures represent those firms who reported paying base plus bonus/incentive and/or profit sharing. "Annual Total Earnings" represents all earnings from all participants regardless of whether they paid anything more than base pay. |
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What do you mean by "weighted average", "median", "1st quartile", "3rd quartile", "units reported", etc.? |
Included in the back of each survey is a "glossary of terminology" that explains each term used. |
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What determines who is included in a "metro-area"? |
We define metro-areas to be locations within a 30-40 mile radius of a given city based on density of population and commuting conditions. |
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| INTERPRETATION |
There is a significant difference (>$3,000) between the weighted average and median of a specific job title. Does this mean there is an error in the data? |
This only means that a particular firm reported a job title with both an unusually high number of employees and an average salary of significant variance from the norm. In this situation, we advise users to use the median because it is not weighted by the number of employees reported. |
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| PARTICIPATION |
How can I participate in your surveys? |
Just click here to select the surveys that interest you and provide your contact information. |
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If I participate, do I save on the cost of the finished survey report? |
Yes. Survey prices are discounted approximately 80% for participants. Register on this site to ensure you will receive your opportunity to participate and save. |
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If I commit to participating in the next edition of a survey, can I receive the current edition at its participant price? |
Participant discounts are provided only to those reporting data in that edition. |
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Do you provide a list of participants in each survey? |
Yes, all surveys contain a list of participants, except the Executive Engineering Compensation Survey whose data is collected from individual executives. |
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| PURCHASING |
Can I order just one or two metro-area summaries from your surveys? |
Our surveys are complete books and are not sold by section. If you pariticpate in a particular edition of a survey, you may purchase metro-area summaries separate from the survey book if ordered at the time you submit your data. Note: If you provide data from a particular metro-area, you will receive a complementary copy of that summary. |
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Can I get copies of your surveys without participating? |
Yes, our surveys are available to anyone at a non-participant price. Click here to see our Survey Schedule page listing participant/non-participant prices. |
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I only need one figure from a survey. Will you give it to me? |
Our extensive experience and expertise in collecting, analyzing, and reporting salary data provides our customers with a valuable product. In addition, we spend considerable resources preparing each survey. Therefore, we do not provide complementary data. |
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| SURVEY PREPARATION |
Where does your data come from? |
In addition to past-participants, we invite a cross-section of firms, between 6,000 and 22,000 depending on the survey. Our national database includes 90,000+ firms. |
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Do you perform customized surveys? |
Yes, we regularly conduct custom-targeted
surveys for clients. Such surveys are commissioned as
private studies and we will gladly provide a quotation
of the costs and viability of
such a survey. Contact Doug Dietrich (doug@dietrichsurveys.com)
for assistance. |
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| USE |
Are your surveys used in immigration certification cases? |
Our surveys meet the seven criteria set forth by the U.S. Department of Labor. If needed, we will provide you a letter specifically addressing these seven criteria. As these cases are decided individually we can not guarantee acceptance in every possible situation. |
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© 2005,
D. DIETRICH ASSOCIATES INC
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