The survey of 634 Electronics Times U.K. readers, revealed an average base salary for directors of $66,059, with an average total salary of $76,295. Managers are commanding a base salary of $53,193 and a total salary of $58,448, compared with engineers, who can expect an average base salary of $41,256 and an average total of $44,325.

Managers have once again seen an average salary increase of 6 percent, the same as in 1999. Average salary increases for engineers have risen slightly compared with last year, from 6.8 to 7 percent. Following last year's figures, which saw average salary increases for directors fall from 7.1 percent in 1997 to 5.2 percent in 1999, with 26 percent suffering pay freezes, average pay increases this year have risen to 7 percent. A third of directors this year suffered a pay freeze, with 2 percent receiving pay decreases.

Distribution is the highest-paid sector, according to this year's survey. Salaries within the sector have risen dramatically in the last three years. In 1997, salaries in distribution were $31,933. Since then, they have risen from the bottom of the table to $55,723 in 1999. This year, the sector is commanding an average salary of $61,365. According to distribution specialists, the dramatic increase in wages in this sector reflects the continuing shortage of field application engineers. As a result, companies are having to match the wages of other sectors.

One area where the industry seems to be becoming more generous is in benefits. Seventy-six percent of employers offer a contributory pension, and 58 percent offer private health plan options. Training incentives and life insurance are the next most popular benefits, with 49 and 41 percent of employers offering them, respectively. Other benefits offered include performance-related bonuses (39 percent), share options (36 percent), company cars (29 percent), relocation expenses (28 percent) and profit-sharing plans (22 percent).

The survey revealed that employees would prefer to receive private health plans (54 percent), followed by contributory pensions (51 percent), relocation expenses (50 percent) and training (49 percent).

According to the survey, 25 percent of respondents have changed jobs either two or three times throughout their careers. Those in research and development were the most likely to stay in one job (34 percent), while 17 percent of those working in equipment and end product design said they had changed jobs six or more times.

Training and lifelong learning remain among the most important concerns in the electronics field. The continual upgrading of skills, along with the emergence of new technologies and manufacturing techniques, is imperative if the U.K. is to compete effectively in the global economy. However, survey results remain disappointing, with 28 percent of respondents claiming that no training had been received in the last 12 months, compared with last year's figure of 32 percent.

The survey also revealed that those earning less than $35,000 receive the least amount of training, with up to 60 percent saying they had received none. It is surprising that those employees needing the most training should receive the least, and probably goes some way to explaining the U.K.'s current skills shortage. As well as attracting more people into the electronics field, industry should also be making the best use of the people it already has. In light of those results, it is unsurprising that 68 percent of respondents claim that projects have been delayed or cut back in the last twelve months because of a lack of engineers.

Electronics and engineering continue to be reasonably lucrative places to pursue a career, with many sectors paying above-average salaries. However, with more employees than ever expecting training as a part of their benefits package, companies need to make greater efforts to train their staff or risk losing them to more employee-oriented competitors.

This year's Electronics Times "Salary Survey" reveals that, for engineers, there are hot jobs to be had, and other places where the money could be better.

We are seeing big increases being paid to engineers in areas where the U.K. has taken a leading role over the past five years. Yet, some areas that might be thought of as being good have turned out to be merely average in terms of pay.

Given its pivotal role in the wireless communications revolution, RF design is not quite the path to engineering riches that you might expect. It's not a bad place to be, just not massively different from the industry average.

Compared with the industry average of $49,995, members of the RF team command a base salary of $50,194.

Chip and component design are actually the biggest money winners for engineers. The rapid expansion of the U.K.'s chip-design activities has caused the salaries of engineers in that sector to surge ahead. The average base salary is close to $58,400 for chip-design staff, although there are big regional variations.

Chip designers get a lot of benefits too, marking it as a sector where skills have run very short and where companies need to find new ways to entice people to come through the door.

Software may be the key to a successful embedded systems design, but even there it's the chip designers who hold the whip hand.

Being involved in chip or component design in those systems can mean $11,680 on top of the base average salary for the embedded sector.

A lot of that difference can be attributed to the additional complexity of designing chips specifically for embedded systems. It means ASICs and, most often, system-on-chip designs, which are big, complex and tough to verify.

Some of the largest embedded-system designs are being created in areas that have been beneficiaries of regional selective assistance grants and other aid, with the goal of enticing big foreign players to the U.K. Perhaps because of that attention, this sector is another one that claims comparatively high salaries outside the South East.

As component suppliers strive to stay ahead of in-house designs, salaries in those companies have risen to become the highest in the embedded-systems design sector.

With benefits included, salaries in component or chip design for embedded systems have surged ahead to more than $75,920 on average.

Those working in computer or communications systems design take second place in the table, standing to make more than $58,400 a year.

Defense and aerospace lag behind the rest of the embedded-systems industry, possibly because people move less frequently between companies in that sector. However, that is largely based on the range of benefits that they do not seem to receive. Base salaries in defense and aerospace are somewhat closer to the base salaries in sectors such as medical systems and consumer products.

With the exception of a hot spot in Wales and a very cold spot in Ireland, salaries across the British Isles for designers involved in embedded systems do not vary that much.

Although Irish embedded-systems designers earn less than $36,500 on average, most regions across the U.K. see salaries in the $51,100 zone, peaking at $58,400 in Wales.

Embedded systems remains a hot area. But it's cooling somewhat, and salary increases over the last year have not moved significantly ahead of those elsewhere in the electronics industry. The average increase over the last year was $4,289, against an industry norm of $3,403.

Despite the emphasis on component or chip design, there is good news for software designers. On average, the base salary for a software engineer working in defense is $40,150. Compare that with a colleague in communications who could expect to command a base wage of $14,600 more. Add in the benefits, and the total figure climbs to more than $59,860.

When you get away from chip design, salaries tend to fall, but it is not all bad news for those working in the design of complete systems.

Largely because of the higher frequencies involved and all the signal-integrity problems that go with them, board designers earn significantly more in computer and communications systems design than in other areas.

The total salary of a board designer working on communications equipment averages $62,050, surging ahead of the $43,800 that an engineer will receive designing boards for consumer products.

Research and development (R&D) is another good place to find a high-paying job. In terms of geography, Scotland seems to have surged ahead. An R & D specialist can expect to receive $69,350 north of the border, compared with $53,655 in the South East.

As with other job functions, R&D in communications pays best. The base salary for R&D staff is close to $59,860 in that sector.

Although the industrial-control sector often has pay rates below the industry average, they are well above average when it comes to R&D-second only to communications.

One thing is clear: Those sectors that have seen the most activity in the last few years have become the leaders in pay.

This year's survey shows that stereotypical images of the British never complaining about their situation despite being unhappy with it seem to be unfounded.

Of the 634 respondents, 61 percent claimed that they were not looking for a new job. Of those that were looking for another position, 11 percent were looking for a fresh position within their current organization, 6 percent were looking to start their own company and 1 percent were looking to become a contractor. In total, 28 percent of engineers, 23 percent of managers and 8 percent of directors were looking for a new permanent position.

In the U.K., only 65 percent in the industry claim to be satisfied with their careers. Not surprisingly, that percentage is split unevenly between managers and workers. Ninety-four percent of directors claimed that they were happy, while only 64 percent of engineers were totally satisfied.

Those high figures probably have a lot to do with the fact that overall, most individuals seem to think that their company respects engineers. The numbers indicate that 41 percent of those asked believed that their company rewarded engineers. The gap between director level and engineers is most evident here. Of directors, 64 percent believed this to be the case, while only 43 percent of managers and a very low 31 percent of engineers agreed. This would seem to indicate directors are out of touch with their engineers.

So are management-level engineers in the U.K. out of touch with their work force? Well, apparently workers are not afraid to disagree with their boss. An impressive 84 percent of the U.K. workers believed they were free to make their point. Although only 60 percent of workers earning below $30,000 a year felt at ease enough to accomplish this, a staggering 94 percent of those earning between $65,000 and $73,000 didn't have a problem with it.

The U.K.'s well-publicized skills shortage came to light, with a staggering 83 percent believing there was a problem. All of the Northern Ireland workers believed this was a problem, while 78 percent of Southern Ireland workers were concerned by it. Nearly 96 percent of the North East of England also saw it as a major issue.

When asked about delays and cutbacks to projects because of a lack of engineers, a total of 68 percent claimed to have experienced this problem. In job status this broke down to 55 percent of all directors, 22 percent of managers and 73 percent of engineers. Engineers were the main group affected by problems.

The groups most likely to experience delays/cutbacks were component/chip designers (83 percent), systems designers (80 percent) and those involved in R&D (80 percent).

Education needs tackling to combat the skills shortage in the future. Most respondents thought that our education system was not doing enough to train capable engineers. Most thought that U.K. education is falling behind other countries.

If the numbers unearthed are truly representative of the industry in general, then we are not a nation of "uptight Brits." If truth be told, we have pretty much the same problems and gripes as our American friends.