Electrical Engineering salaries in CH

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1
Hello one and all!

I'm ScottieV, new to the englishforum.ch but I've been reading all your threads.

I wanted to ask some advice on salaries.............

I'm a ten yr BEng qualified Elec Eng, presently working in Perth Australia and I'm planning to relocate back to Europe, Specifically Switzerland.

Does anyone know the going rate for an Elec Eng with 10yr experience in consulting engineering (specifically heavy industry)? Is SFR135k too low as a base?

Best Regards

ScottieV

2
CHF135k per annum sounds outrageous high if you ask me... I posses BSc/MSc (+ PhD not that much rated in industry) in Power Electronics plus 8 years experience and having been working for half a year at ABB, I only get close to CHF100k which is a standard salary bracket here for engineers...

3
most importantly, What other languages do you speak?

4
My partner is Austrian so I can speak german and also basic French. There are several English speaking companies in Switzerland with international projects. I'm not expecting to work purely in english only, it would very ignorant to think the Swiss only speak English around the office.

scottiev

5

I agree, 135k does seem a tad on the high side. It also depends on how big the company is, and how well you can negotiate your salary (and benefits) in your interview

6
Thanks for the feedback Jacek, surely its down to the company to offer what your worth, what value you can add, experience you can bring into company, also depends on the clients you work for and on what projects.

For instance in AUS 8yr experience would pay CH140+ on contract, demand is a major driver for this too.

7
NDspittal

Your right, it does depend on the company but also the rate % the company sells you to the client.

8
hi,

i'm entry level electrical engineer (msc) with one year work experience as intern (Switzerland), in a major corporation. I was offered 6k/month (72k year flat) in a Swiss startup company. Is this rubbish salary?

9
No.

10
what would be rubbish salary then and I what is the average/median for electrical engineers with my experience depending on the size of company?

Obviously, I have searched about ee salary ranges in CH, and I got all kinds of numbers ranging from 55k to 110k for entry-level/junior. Any information about salary distribution would be very helpful.

11
Over the past decade I've noticed that EE salaries have been coming down. Where 120K was once standard for an experienced EE, it has now come down to 110K. And the old 13 months of salary is being replaced by 12, with perhaps a not-too-generous bonus. And this is for EEs speaking English and German. With little experience and not speaking German, it goes down to 80-90K. I blame it on the free movement of people from the EU. They can offer EU engineers much less than those already here because they have little idea about the cost of living here, and the figure sounds good compared to their home market salary.

12
I'm rather thinking it is the decline or stagnation of these industry branches that requires EE skills in Switzerland. Less competitive, lower margins, lower salaries. Switzerland is probably not the best country to be for electrical/electronics engineers.

Some other industries, in particular pharma, are growing in Switzerland.

13

120k a standard for non-management position? And in the era when CHF-EUR exchange rate used to be much favorable? Sounds like to good to be true. Speaking for myself, I can be happy if I ever make it over 80k, because every time I have mentioned wanted salary bracket over this number, HR lost all the interest. Or maybe there is an unwritten rule, that nationalities outside G8 are entitled only to low salaries.

14
Hardly. 70-80k is an perfectly normal salary for a recent graduate with zero relevant experience and to ask for more is a bit delusional. No way anyone will pay you significantly above 80k. And that is only fair. The average is probably somewhere around 120k. That is for experienced EEs. You are not experienced. Surely you don't think as a graduate with one internship you should earn anywhere near that amount, given that is what people with 10, 15, 20 years of experience earn.

15
Samaire13 is borderline correct. I would like to clarify that this salary is not rubbish for a startup (typically, they have lower salaries, but sometimes they compensate by offering stock - this is something you should ask for).

16
It's not a start-up and the salary is not rubbish either way.

What do some people think a recent grad with basically zero experience should earn?

Come on. Some grip on reality please.

17

Good to know, but too late. Unfortunately, I have already tossed the aforementioned contract straight in recycle bin in thinking that I am being notably underpaid. Not sure where I got idea that salary bracket even for entry-level /junior is in the range of 80-90k.

18
Get ready for a very full bin then!

80-85k is what banking juniors at the big banks start on and from my understanding they get paid better than engineers.

19
You've already got a job then ?

i'm entry level electrical engineer (msc) with one year work experience as intern (Switzerland), in a major corporation.

You're simply not worth any more !Maybe with more experience you'll be able to earn more but you'll also need to change your attitudeYou are only worth what somebody is ready to pay you, not any more.

20

Again, I didn't insist that I should be paid more, I was only concerned that I would be underpaid.

Now, where did I get idea that mentioned salary is underpaid?

Based on payscale median ee entry level salary is 80k. This is very bizzare, as median ee salary (all experience levels) is almost the same, like there is a weaker correlation between experience and salary in CH. Now, 50% of ee juniors earn 80k, while 25% 61k. This means that with 72k I would earn less than 50% of juniors. In fact I would earn as much as 40% of juniors do earn , if linear distribution assumed.

entry level ee:

http://www.payscale.com/research/CH/...96/Entry-Level

all groups ee:

http://www.payscale.com/research/CH/...ngineer/Salary

salarium returns even more - chf7200 median monthly, or 93600 median yearly (uni education, 0 years work experience, small sized company, canton bern). For big companies it 8000CHF. Changing the work experience parameter doesn't change much.