What is the typical annual income of a land surveyor in your area? What is your area?
Depends. Are you meaning an employee that is licensed or an owner that is licensed.
Not wanting to split hairs, but there is a big difference.
Around Central Oklahoma a PLS working for a firm is in the range of 47.5K to 75K per annum.
Owners and Principals make more than that.
what if 40% are unemployed( but then many of those have left for the oil patch)
too ambiguous of a question
I know several licensed surveyors who are unemployed making 0.00
I know several LS's who work part time or moonlight that supplement their income on the order of $500/wk
I know several LS's that work full time making 30-45K/yr
I know a couple LS's who own their own business and had negative income the last 3 years
I will clarify
1. A professional surveyor working for a company.
2. A professional surveyor entrapraneur after overhead is subtracted from total gross income.
1. When I worked for someone else, which ended in 2008, it ranged from $45760 - $62400. Central Florida area. I'd guess the going rate for working for someone else has probably settled in somewhere in the middle since 2008.
2. Depends. I run into my old boss from time to time, and he says he hasn't taken paycheck in 3 years, and has to keep the money in the company to keep it going. For me, Money wise, I'm doing better as a solo surveyor than I did working for someone else, but my overhead is extremely low. I take about 66% of my revenue as a paycheck.
Working for a company - $70K/year
From Google:
In 2009, the average wage of a land surveyor was $26.05 per hour or $54,420 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Surveyors in the 10th earnings percentile were averaging $14.49 per hour and $30,130 per year, while those in the 90th percentile were averaging $40.85 per hour and $89,120 per year. The bureau estimates that there were 50,360 surveyors in the United States in 2009.
Alaska would be in the 90th percentile but of course it varies with work load
Less than what spledeus makes, I promise 🙂
> 1. A professional surveyor working for a company.
>
> 2. A professional surveyor entrapraneur after overhead is subtracted from total gross income.
In CA, I think the higher end of the BLS range would pertain as to Situation 1. For public agency employees, it's higher still.
As to Situation 2, that's going to vary a lot with the individual situation, but most who are serious about it and have gotten their startup years -- which can be pretty rough -- well behind them, I think the average net profit is substantially higher than the Situation 1 salary.
Don't forget, though, that the net profit of a sole proprietor isn't directly comparable to the salary of an employee. Out of that net profit comes self-employment tax (roughly 8% of the first $107k *above* what an employee pays), health insurance ($21k next year for my wife, son and me), and retirement contribution.
Danged if I know. Nobody else wants to tell me and I sure don't tell them. Besides, I've got so many different things going on it is tough to really set a number on surveying only for me.
My guess is that a licensed surveyor should be making about $80,000 per year working for a firm of some size.
"should be" is probably the key here?
I have no idea what they are making or should be making around here on the Central Coast of Calif.
It varies a lot around here, from a newly licensed guy or a licensed PC (±65k) to a long time experienced guy (±85k) to someone that has "many" years experience and brings a bunch of clients to the table with them in a managerial position (±100k-120k)
West Texas oilfields.
I don't understand why business owners work for free? Maybe it's just a claim. I certainly can't afford to work for free.
> What is the typical annual income of a land surveyor in your area? What is your area?
Since you asked, what is it in your area, and where are you located? Don't ask a question that you won't answer yourself.
Just a SWAG, but
> 1. A professional surveyor working for a company.
Newly licensed Project Surveyor: $70,000
Rainmaking division manager at multi-disciplinary firm: $120,000 - $150,000
> 2. A professional surveyor entrepreneur after overhead is subtracted from total gross income.
Solo guy in his basement doing boundary & mortgage surveys: $60,000
Principal at big engineering firm $150,000 - $200,000+
Not enough that's for sure. I was making $52,000 per year for a well established multi-disciplined firm before I decided to go out on my own. Did well over 60-70% of the office and field work in my department at the time while the "survey manager" sat in the office and supposedly answered phone calls and made twice that much all while we got our hours cut every winter even though we always completed jobs well ahead of schedule.
I make substantially less now, but I choose what type of work I do and if there is a profit in a job it goes in my pocket not in the bank so someone else can avoid getting their hours cut by milking a job and eating into those funds.
Sorry about my soapbox rant, but I never was happy working for someone else, especially when you can tell they have drank the kook-aid of the corporation mentality and their employees become nothing more than equipment used to get the job done.
I have no idea about the private which can vary widely depending upon circumstances. Based on their rate sheets I assume managers in large firms which are busy make the most. Solo surveyors don't make as much but then there are the lifestyle advantages to not working for a large corp or gu'mint.
Public agency salaries are public information readily available, to wit:
State: rank & file about 100k, senior 108, supervising (mgmt) 118.
I am a first line supervisor and through a quirk of history known as Arnold Schwarzenegger I make less than those guys even though I supervise rank and file (r&f is at 100.5 and party chief-LS required-is at 99.5).
Reduce those amounts by about 5 % for furloughs.
Those may seem high but this is California. Caltrans dist 4 (bay area) has a perpetual ad for a range D surveyor (LS required but rank & file) because they can't keep people down there due to the high cost of living. The state should pay a premium on that position but that would never happen in this political climate.
why do you need to give figures for other guys? just state you income so that we know the actual amount & not some rumor about what the other guy is making.
i am from Mindanao Island in the Philippines, last year income is P2,000,000 ($50,000). This year I think it will be the same. My salary though is based on remaining income after all overhead & salaries of field crews are paid off. Gross income would be double that amount.
> I don't understand why business owners work for free? Maybe it's just a claim. I certainly can't afford to work for free.
It's either that or unemployment. After 8 years of being on my own I finally grossed in my solo business what I made as a government surveyor. My net? I'm paying my bills.