Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
The latest available salary figures for 2006, published in the AAPG Explorer (April 2007 issue), indicates that overall, salaries climbed 16 percent.
In the six age groups that Mike Ayling of MLA Resources currently tracks, the largest salary increase was 18% in the 15-19 year category. Entry level geologists saw a 9.5% increase, with the 3-5 year category rising 13 percent.
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Salaries for geologists with 10-14 years of experience lost about 2.5%, but this may only be due to the lack of data points. There was very little hiring in this category during the downturn of the early, to mid 1990’s.
Geoscientists with 20-24 years, and 25+ years of experience, saw increases of 10.3, and 10.5 percent, respectively. In past years (and I would still expect it to be the case), over half of the data points were individuals with over 20 years of experience, which is not surprising with an average age of 50-plus years in the industry (AAPG’s mean age is 49).
Another interesting feature of the graph is the fact that for the last three years the average salary of geoscientists with 20-24 years increased dramatically (37%)—actually surpassing those with 25+ years for the last two years.
The AAPG salary survey, usually published each spring (varies from March-June), ”is based on employed, salaried geoscientists and cannot acount for the unemployed or underemployed individuals…. It also does not include bonuses, employee benefits, autos or other perquisites, …nor include anyone whose compensation is in the form of consulting fees, retainers or overrides”.
I will update the graph with the 2007 figures as soon as they become available in a few months.
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