Don't be so rude. Nothing about my comment was derogatory. Without knowing the base salary, I asked a question.
Your question was ignorant and the way that you phrased it could be considered offensive to some... MMM seemed cool with it, but I was simply chiming in that when you, as a 17 year old who has yet to work a full-time job and pay her own bills, asking why someone *only* made $92k after 20 years as if he's a failure to get promoted comes off as ignorant and entitled.
Considering what those people have to do with that four year degree, the lowest 10 percent earned less than $68,940 and the top 10 percent earned more than $149,940. Obviously, that top 10 percent earns more due to degrees and experience but if someone's been doing it for 69k for 20 years, I would expect them to be at least average (about 80k) with their experience saying that this person is good at what they do. At least make a smart move to a better, higher paying job within that 20 years. With average pay that Duke gives to Level 1 engineers (80k) I'd expect to be at about 108k within twenty year or at least the average salary. Going back with masters and so on, I'd expect higher than that. It just seems like within such a profession where so much is on the line, they would get promotions and bonuses within that company, especially after 20 years. If nothing shows promise, I'd apply for a higher paying job, even out of state. Don't be so rude. Nothing about my comment was derogatory. Without knowing the base salary, I asked a question.
You have to be careful when using averages with income because income is not normally distributed; it's closer to exponentially or gamma distributed. The very few people who make really high salaries pull the average high; that is why using the median is a better indication of what you can expect to make.
Starting salary for an engineer fresh out of college is around $60-70k; that's assuming that you have good enough grades/internship/whatever to be hired in the field. The median career salary is around $90-110k. Half of engineers make more than that, but half don't. Also depends on location, local labor supply and demand comes into play, with generally more desirable locations having lower salaries simply because more people are there to hire.
Why such a low income average? Probably because 70% of Americans don't even go to college or finish with a degree. After being to 14 different schools in my 15 year lifespan, I can see why. Most kids don't care.
Annnd again your post has the tone of looking down on people who work hard to earn their money. Must be something
wrong with the people making such a
low salary of $50k. They must be lazy or indifferent... it's not like the economy is recovering from a massive recession, technology advances have reduced labor demand, or anything like that.
What I posted before is the median salary for people with 4 year degrees, i.e. the ones who finished. Without a college degree, the median income is around $25-30k. It's not bad to have a goal of pulling $100k with an engineering degree, but your idea that you can just jump ship to the next guy when you're not being paid what you want when you want it is off the mark. Perhaps there aren't many jobs available. Perhaps you're not as good as you think you are. Perhaps your current employer is already over-paying you. Perhaps you don't want to move your family for a 3% raise when you're already making good money. Perhaps you just bought a house and you do some calculations and realize that it would cost you over $10k in realtor fees to short-sell it because the value stayed flat the past few years. Perhaps your husband won't be able to find job where the job that gives you that small raise is located. You won't know any of this until you get there.
It sounds as if your parents have made very good careers for themselves and therefore you don't really have a good perspective on what a lot of people are going through. All I'm saying is be careful how you are phrasing things, because the tone of your posts conveys someone with a chip on her shoulder. Take it or leave it.
I also encourage you to talk to 22-25 year old college graduates and hear what they have to say about the job market, which is something your dad hasn't had to deal with for quite some time -- many would love to have a job at $40k with advancement opportunity just so they can afford to pay their student loans and move out of the parents house, but they're stuck working in retail/restaurants until that job oppportunity opens. Some of them are people who went to no-name state schools and spent their free time partying, but many are people who went to esteemed universities and have very solid GPAs.
Engineering careers can be relatively lucrative, just don't expect to be offered 6-figure jobs anywhere you please simply for being 'average.' You're going to need the right combination of talent, networking, and luck.