Materials Engineer Salary and Wage Information
| Wage Rate | Low (<10%) | Median (50%) | High (>90%) |
| Hourly Wage | $26.20 | $42.00 | $64.70 |
| Annual Wage | $54,500 | $87,300 | $134,500 |
- "Low (<10%)" indicates that 10% of workers earned less and 90% earned more.
- "Median (50%)" indicates that 50% of workers earned less and 50% earned more.
- "High (>90%)" indicates that 90% of workers earned less and 10% earned more.
- "N/A" indicates that data in not available
*The annual salary and wage data presented above represents U.S, Based workers with full-time employment and year-round schedules.
Additional Information
Materials engineers work with the raw materials used in a wide variety of products. They develop, produce, and test these materials, which are used in the creation of such items as golf clubs, computer chips, snow skis, and aircraft wings. The goal of materials engineers is to make new materials which fulfill certain chemical, electrical, and mechanical criteria. To do this, they may use substances like plastics, ceramics, metals, semiconductors, or composites. Materials engineers also find new ways to use existing materials. The median annual salary for materials engineers was just over $85,100 in 2012. The lowest ten percent of materials engineers earned less than $52,900 a year, while the top ten percent earned more than $130,000.
For the top five industries employing materials engineers, the median annual salaries were as follows:
| Federal government | $109,800 |
| Aerospace parts and products | $97,160 |
| R&D | $86,250 |
| Semiconductors and electronics | $84,100 |
| Architectural and engineering | $80,100 |