Salary Calculator

[cincinnatinuke]

Anyone out there have a good link to a salary calculator.  I am up for a yearly review, and as I understand from many co-workers, especially those in my cell, that though they feel they are worth more the company cannot directly correlate their postion to an existing position in the industry.  This is a small company that asks alot from a few, which has its ups and downs to it. 
Background:  I work at an instumentation company that uses radioactive sources to make density, level, and wieght measurements.  Alot of my work focuses on surveys, meter calibrations, recieving and shipping RAM, prep work for disposals, field work with instrumentation(calibrating an instruments signal to a customer's PLC or DCS), maintaining RAM inventory, I also teach a rad safety and licensing class every 6 weeks.............As you might see I am qualified to do alot, but to clarify I work directly with the RSO.  I found one engineering salary calculator and when I entered the required variables and geographic location I got a number that my company may just laugh at.  I have almost six years of experience in the Nuke field and am considering whether to move on or find out I am on par given these variables.

[Already Gone]

What's so funny about paying you what you're worth?  Your job description sounds like a Senior Health Physics Tech.  Not counting benefits, you should be looking at hourly rates upwards of $30.  If you're working year round, your annual should be between $70k and $100k depending on the amount of OT and geographical factors.  In Florida or Southern California, the numbers would be about two thirds of what you should expect in Illinois.  It all depends on labor costs in your part of the country.  New Jersey would be about the same as Illinois depending on your distance from NYC.  If you're in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, or Tennessee, expect about $25 - 29 per hour.  Unionized techs make boatloads more money than non-union, and house techs make about twice the rate of contractors plus better bennies.

[halflifer]

try this site
http://www.homefair.com/homefair/servlet/ActionServlet?pid=199&cid=losalamos

[Rad Sponge]

Here is a comparison....

I just took a job as an HP with no experience other than nuke navy with a base of 60K plus a host of benes.

The job is in Missouri which has a pretty low cost of living statewide.

You can also access the American Health Physicist Association and download their annual salary report.

http://www.hps1.org/aahp/surveys.htm

R. Sponge

[Rad Sponge]

Note to previous:

This is based on being a CHP: board certified health physicist so if you are not adjust the numbers, but eventhough I am not board certified, my HP salary was in line with what a CHP with a non-HP degree with my experience would make.

But watch out, 5 years from now when I do get CHP'd, its on. $$$

[RDTroja]

What's so funny about paying you what you're worth?  Your job description sounds like a Senior Health Physics Tech.  Not counting benefits, you should be looking at hourly rates upwards of $30.  If you're working year round, your annual should be between $70k and $100k depending on the amount of OT and geographical factors.  In Florida or Southern California, the numbers would be about two thirds of what you should expect in Illinois.  It all depends on labor costs in your part of the country.  New Jersey would be about the same as Illinois depending on your distance from NYC.  If you're in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, or Tennessee, expect about $25 - 29 per hour.  Unionized techs make boatloads more money than non-union, and house techs make about twice the rate of contractors plus better bennies.

A lot of the points BeerCourt makes are spot on, but I have to disagree with a few of them. The pay rates (for contractors at least, and I believe for house techs as well) I have seen in Illinois were not any higher than I see in Florida and the amount of overtime is being drastically reduced in most areas which makes achieving $100K ($70 to $80 is pretty close) a whole lot harder than it used to be. The last sentance is, in my experience, not true at all except for the bennies. There is a slight price advantage to being union in some cases, but I have seen others where it really didn't make a difference, and I have never seen a house tech that made twice what a contractor made. If that was the case there wouldn't be any 'former house techs' or vacant slots in utility HP organizations and there would be waiting lines at every utility HR office. A house tech by virtue of working more weeks during the year will probably come out ahead, but to say the rate is twice what a contractor gets is way off base.

[volfireman07]

The funny thing about pay rates is what does that rate include.  Beer Court specified no benes in his view.  I have hired contract and direct, salary and hourly.  The rate for direct hire is usually based on applicable experience, while the rate for contract is based on what the market will bear.  Sometimes the rate I offer a contractor includes OT and per diem in one hourly rate.  Of course this rate is a lot higher.  If benefits are offered, you may still need a higher hourly rate to cover co-pays for insurance or lower matching funds in 401Ks.

I recommend you look at the total package.  I agree that everone should make what they are worth, but as a small company it is hard to always do that in straight up cash.  I came to my current position at a 10% cut.  The intrinsic value made up for the $$ loss though.  What kind of other benefits do you get out of your job?  Flexible schedule, comp time, bonuses, education assistance?  I try not to look at the dollar per hour as much as I look at the work (do I enjoy it), the management (do I like them), basically the total package.

Several years ago I left a job in search of "what I was worth" because I felt I was unappreciated.  I like my current job, but still I wish I could go back. 

Even thought you have a parachute when you jump - where will you land?

[halflifer]

Even thought you have a parachute when you jump - where will you land?

that is probably the best piece of advice you will ever receive !!!!

[cincinnatinuke]

First off thank you for the responses.  I just hope this in no way sparks a debate between union and non-union and so on.
The bennies here are pretty good.  We saw a 10% bonus last year which is pretty unheard of and uncommon for our company.  We had a lot go right to get that and may see 3-5% this year.  Insurance is so so, but like I said its a small company.  We have a 401k, life ins which varies in price based on your wife's desires when you pass away (I see it as paying her to be with another when you're gone ), and other standard items for any company.  The bonus system though is probably the big difference between most companies and ours since everyone pockets from ownership to custodians.  We have tuition assistance but there is a ne for that and you still gotta justify your goals to match the companies so no phys ed majors just lots of MBA's which everyone and there mother wants and that really drains the pool quickly.
No comp time.  Other field techs are paid hourly so when I hit the road I get the same for12 to 15 hours as I would for 8.  And good luck asking for monday off when you are on the road all weekend or you logged 70 to 80 hours that week.  The hourly guys get that time off, but what is the sense of paying a guy 8 hours of ot on a Friday to finish his travel forms and shoot the breeze.
I am getting off key here.  There are likes and dislikes just as I am sure you guys all have.  I am young, for the most part, and have 2 young kids, a wife, and a mortgage.  I only see $$$ as far as take home.  Maybe when I am nearing retirement I'll wish I had a better 401 or a pension or something else.  I hope that doesnt sound too jaded. 
If you guys see anymore salary calculators let me know.

[kwicslvr]

Unionized techs make boatloads more money than non-union,

I would think this would depend on the plant in particular.   Our plant is not union and our annaul bonus alone is ~10x higher than our union counterparts at another one of our plants.  Our base salaries are almost identical and we do not pay union dues.  We also get an individual performance bonus here which our union counterparts are not offered.

[Already Gone]

Let's stop the union vs. non-union debate right now.  I have to qualify my earlier statement.  Any monetary advantage to being unionized depends strongly on the strength of the unions in your area.  A union tech in the deep south is not going to be raking in the kind of dough that they are getting in Illinois or New Jersey.  It is also not helpful to compare two plants in the same company that are as far apart as Calvert Cliffs and Nine Mile Point.  There is absolutely no comparison between them.  The cost of living in Syracuse, NY is only about 64% of what it costs to live in Annapolis, MD.
But, unless people are willing to post the actual pay rates here, it is pointless to compare anyway.  This could go on forever and prove nothing.
Let me just amend my earlier statement to read that house techs in strongly unionized regions make a lot more money than their counterparts in areas with no union influence.  It also can be said that they have a higher cost of living and higher local and state taxes too, but that is not what the question asked.

[Mike McFarlin]

Pretty neat gadget, this salary calculator. It ciphers better than I do.