SECTION 2
DETERMINING YOUR 2003 SALARY RANGE

INTRODUCTION

The most important variable operating to determine salary ranges for any given occupational group is the market, the relationship between the supply of and the demand for the services of a particular occupational group: a single supply/demand market.

There are many factors affecting the market and those affecting the market for one occupational group are different from those affecting the markor another occupational group. Market surveys to determine the salaries paid by similar companies to members of the occupational group being studied are therefore widely used and consulted.

APEGGA MARKET SURVEY June of 2003 APEGGA conducted its annual Employer Salary Survey. A total of 8,505 salary statistics for Alberta engineers, geologists and geophysicists were supplied by 93 employers who are identified in Appendix B (Page 49).

Participating organizations provided salary information based on the level of responsibility of each employee's position, data on year of graduation, if available, and information on the classification of their organization.

Selected salary range tables from this year's survey are reported here and various demographic survey results are given in Appendix B.

USING SURVEY RESULTS TO DETERMINE YOUR 2003 SALARY RANGE

To use salary survey data as a guideline it is important to consider all reported results and to keep in mind the following remuneration concepts.

• Salary is basically determined by the level of responsibility of the position.
• Salary levels vary between professional groups. Survey results are reported in Figures 4, 5 and 6.
• Salary levels also vary among industry sectors. Survey results are reported in Figures 7 and 8.
• Data on weekly hours of work and overtime payment is given in Figures 12, 13, and 14 in Section 5.
• Data on Additional Cash Compensation is noted in Figure 15.
• Salaries by year of graduation should only be used as a check on career progress relative to others of an equivalent age and as a check on the more basic level-of-responsibility concept. Figure B2 in Appendix B provides survey results on salaries by year of graduation and level of responsibility.

SURVEY NOTES

• The salaries quoted in the tables that follow are base salaries in effect as of June 2003. Base salaries include cost of living allowances, bonuses which have a continuing relationship to salary, pay for holiday days (statutory and declared) and vacation days. The base salary does not include bonuses based on unusual performance or which do not become, for the next year or the next pay period, part of the base salary. Commissions, fringe benefits, profit sharing are not included. Bonuses with a continuing relationship to salary would have the following characteristics:
• They are performance based.
• All employees in the reporting category are eligible to receive the bonus, but do not necessarily receive it every year (or bonus period).
• Although the bonus does not have to be proportional to salary, it generally is; i.e. higher salaried people generally receive higher bonuses.
• The statistical measures used in compiling the tables are:

  Mean: Numerical average. The mean is not shown where there are fewer than three observations.

  Low Decile (D1): 90% of the salaries were above this point and 10% were below it. The decile rate is not shown where there are fewer than 11 observations.

  Low Quartile (Q1): 75% of the salaries were above this point and 25% were below it. The low quartile rate is not shown where there are fewer than five observations.

  Median: 50% of the salaries were above this point and 50% were below it. The median rate is not shown where there are fewer than five observations.

  High Quartile (Q3): 25% of the salaries were above this point and 75% were below. The high quartile rate is not shown where there are fewer than five observations.

  High Decile (D9): 10% of the salaries were above this point and 90% were below it. The high decile rate is not shown where there are fewer than 11 observations.

• Where no significant differences were found between salaries paid to engineers, geologists and geophysicists in a particular industry sector, or where there was insufficient data to break responses down by professions, data from all three professions were combined into a single table for that specific industry sector. Resource Exploitation (oil & gas) was the only industry sector where sufficient data was available to report professions separately.
• Negative figures are indicated by parentheses.
  

ANNUAL SALARIES BY LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY

Figure 4 ... view
Figure 5 ... view
Figure 6 ... view
Figure 7 ... view page 1, page 2, page 3 and page 4
Figure 8 ... view
Figure 9 ... view