SECTION 4
2003 SALARY EXPECTATION

STEP 1
DETERMINE YOUR LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY

Determine your level of responsibility (see Section 1) as you will want to make comparisons which relate to your level.

STEP 2
DETERMINE YOUR 2002 SALARY RANGE

Consult the salary survey data reported for your professional group (engineer, geologist or geophysicist) and the salary survey data reported for your industry sector in Section 2. This data plus other salary survey data on engineers, geologists and geophysicists in Appendix B will help you to determine your 2002 salary range.

STEP 3
DETERMINE 2002 TO 2003 SALARY ADJUSTMENT

Using the Example in Section 3 and/or other information available to you, determine what the estimated increase may be in salary from 2002 to 2003 Use this value to adjust your 2002 salary range in order to arrive at your 2003 salary range.

For example, the 2002 salary range for a level "C" engineer (all industries) ranges as follows:

D1	Median	D9
$57,720	$68,100	$75,755

If the 2002-2003 increase in salaries is estimated to be 8.5% as shown in Example (page 28), the 2003 salary range for the level "C" engineer would be:

D1	Median	D9
$62,626	$73,888	$82,194

STEP 4
2002 SALARY EXPECTATION

Performance

At this step you turn from evaluating the job to evaluating yourself, and how well you are performing the job you hold.

Performance can range from:

(a) very low - new in the job, new in the company, with a minimum of directly related experience so that considerable and fairly close supervision is required, to

(b) very high - five or six years in the job (assuming a "C" Level of Responsibility) so that you perform quickly (you don't have to double-check because you've handled that kind of problem before), you accomplish a great deal, it's accurate and you need little supervision (people know that you will get the job done and that it will be done well).

To illustrate further, if the level "C" engineer noted in Step 3, has a few years' experience in the job, brought no or very little directly relevant experience to the job, has come to the job from outside the company and is still having trouble arriving at a decision or makes poor decisions, submits reports that still need to be checked for accuracy, the level "C" engineer should expect to be paid in the range of $63,000 to $68,000 (Decile 1 to Quartile 1) in 2002.

On the other hand, if after two years, the level "C" engineer makes good decisions quickly, presents reports and recommendations that are normally accepted, starts to see and suggest ways to improve the work and is generally accepted as a strong member of the team, the level "C" engineer should expect to be paid in the area of $68,000 to $79,000 (Quartile 3 to Decile 9) per year.

Salary Trends

The APEGGA Survey collected additional information from employers on anticipated salary adjustments over the next 12 months:

- 74% of our 84 respondents estimated salaries will increase. (average increase – 2.3%)

(Note – the weighted average rate of increase is 3.0%). After reviewing the calculation

method used in previous surveys, APEGGA is adopting this weighted average method for

future surveys rather than the simple average that has been used in the past.

- 19% of our 84 respondents estimated salaries will remain stable.

- 1% of our 84 respondents indicated that salaries would decrease.

- 6% of our 84 respondents had no response.

Other Considerations

• Salary is one of two major components of remuneration received by an employee; the other being benefits. In order to determine your total compensation, it is important to consider both parts. Section 5 contains information on employee benefits and compensation concepts.

• A weakness of the single market survey is that a strong market demand for the services of a single occupational group will push salary rates for that group to unacceptably high levels (in relation to the level of responsibility assumed) causing dissatisfaction in related occupational groups and setting up high turnover rates later when demand declines. The opposite also happens when demand is low.

As such, salaries of an occupational group (determined by a strict application of the single market approach) are not efficient in encouraging a steady inflow of quality persons nor in encouraging persons already practicing the occupation to continue to practice. Both of these factors are of concern.

In order to stabilize salaries, some companies consider changes in the economy and actual salaries paid to a variety of other occupational groups, as well as the trends in these.

There are many factors to consider and only some have been referred to above. However, using these factors and/or those considered important by your supervisor or company, you should be able to arrive at a dollar figure which will equate to the value of professional services you are providing for your company.