Electrical Engineer Salary (2026): Pay Guide for All 50 States

Electrical engineers in the United States earn a national median of $125,033 per year — roughly $60.11/hour. Electrical engineer pay sits at the top tier of bachelor's-degree-required engineering professions, supported by intense demand for hardware engineering talent at Big Tech and semiconductor companies, the massive expansion of utility-scale renewable energy and grid modernization, the rapid scale-up of EV and battery manufacturing, persistent defense and aerospace demand, and the ongoing AI hardware buildout driving exceptional pay for chip-design and silicon-photonics engineers.

The national median is only the middle of the distribution. Three numbers describe the real range of electrical engineer compensation:

• Entry-level electrical engineers (10th percentile): $79,344/year — typically newly graduated ABET BSEE engineers in their first 1–2 years, often as engineer-in-training (EIT) status, working at mid-sized employers, defense contractors at entry pay grades, utility companies in power engineering rotation programs, or small engineering consultancies.
• Median electrical engineer (50th percentile): $125,033/year — the working electrical engineer with 3–8 years of experience, frequently at mid-tier semiconductor companies, defense contractors, utilities (typically PE-licensed for power utility roles), aerospace primes, automotive manufacturers, and consumer electronics companies.
• Top-earning electrical engineers (90th percentile): $191,027/year — senior electrical engineers in high-cost metros, principal hardware engineers and senior staff engineers at FAANG and tier-1 tech (Apple silicon team, Google TPU design, Meta Reality Labs, Amazon Annapurna Labs, NVIDIA GPU architecture, Microsoft hardware), senior IC designers at top semiconductor companies (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Marvell, Apple), senior RF engineers at wireless/aerospace, senior power engineers at large utilities, principal engineers at EV companies (Tesla powertrain, Rivian, Lucid), and senior research engineers at AI hardware startups (Groq, Cerebras, SambaNova, Tenstorrent).

Geographic location matters, but specialty and employer tier often matter more for electrical engineers than for most professions. Engineers in Sunnyvale, CA earn a median of $198,440, while colleagues in San Juan, PR earn around $75,571. FAANG and tier-1 semiconductor hardware engineers in Silicon Valley frequently out-earn equivalent engineers at traditional industrial employers by $100,000–$400,000+ in total compensation through base + bonus + RSU equity. Senior chip-design engineers (verification, physical design, RTL, architecture) at top AI-hardware companies routinely clear $400,000–$700,000+ in total compensation.

Electrical Engineer Salary vs PE Electrical Engineer Salary — Are They the Same?

Not always — but the PE premium is smaller for EE than for civil engineering. Electrical Engineer is the broad occupational title; PE (Professional Engineer) license is required for engineers signing off on engineering drawings for public power, utility, and certain infrastructure projects. Unlike civil engineering — where PE licensure is essentially mandatory for senior career advancement — most electrical engineers in semiconductor, electronics, RF, and embedded specialties never pursue PE licensure because their work isn't subject to PE sign-off requirements. PE licensure is most common (and most pay-relevant) in:

• Power utility engineering — transmission, distribution, substation design at utilities (PG&E, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion Energy, NextEra Energy, Xcel Energy, ConEd, Exelon, Eversource, AEP, FirstEnergy, Entergy, DTE).
• Power systems engineering consulting — Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch, Stantec, AECOM, POWER Engineers, Quanta Services, Sargent & Lundy.
• Building electrical design / MEP engineering — engineering consulting firms designing commercial/industrial electrical systems (often part of broader MEP — Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing — engineering services).
• Industrial controls and automation engineering — pulp & paper, refining, chemical processing, mining; PE common in industrial controls specialty.
• Renewable energy project engineering — wind farm electrical design, solar farm collector systems, battery energy storage system (BESS) design.

The PE licensure path:

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (BSEE) — 4 years at ABET-EAC accredited program.
• Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam — NCEES-administered. Passing designates EIT/EI status.
• 4 years of supervised engineering experience under a PE.
• PE Electrical exam — NCEES-administered specialty exam. Three PE Electrical exams: Power, Electronics Controls and Communications, or Computer Engineering.
• State PE license — issued by state engineering licensing board.

In semiconductor, electronics, RF, embedded, and computer architecture specialties — which dominate the high-pay end of the electrical engineering profession — the typical credential stack focuses instead on:

• Master's degree (MSEE) or PhD — common at top tech and semiconductor employers. PhD common at architecture, verification, and research roles at Big Tech and semiconductor R&D.
• Specialty technical depth — deep expertise in specific tool stacks (Cadence, Synopsys, Siemens EDA for IC design; Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, Ansys HFSS for RF; specific microcontroller architectures for embedded; specific RF protocols for wireless), domain knowledge (5G/6G, IEEE 802.11 family, automotive ISO 26262 functional safety, aerospace DO-254/DO-178C, IEC 61508 industrial safety).
• IEEE Member / Senior Member / Fellow — IEEE membership and Senior Member / Fellow grade recognition.
• Specialty industry credentials — INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional, Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ Reliability Engineer, BICSI RCDD (for telecom design), NCEES Power Quality certification.
• Security clearance (Secret / Top Secret / TS-SCI) — required for defense and aerospace work; supports 20–30% pay premium at clearance-required positions.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the profession's global society. The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Power Engineering Society are additional specialty organizations.

The same job goes by several names in salary surveys and job postings:

• Electrical engineer salary / electrical engineer pay / EE salary
• PE electrical engineer salary / licensed electrical engineer pay
• Power systems engineer salary / utility electrical engineer pay
• Semiconductor engineer salary / IC design engineer pay / chip design engineer salary
• RTL design engineer salary / verification engineer pay / physical design engineer salary
• RF engineer salary / wireless engineer pay / antenna engineer salary
• Embedded systems engineer salary / firmware engineer pay
• Controls engineer salary / automation engineer pay
• Hardware engineer salary (FAANG / Big Tech)
• Power electronics engineer salary / EV powertrain engineer pay
• Aerospace electrical engineer salary / defense EE pay
• Building electrical design engineer salary / MEP electrical engineer pay
• Renewable energy electrical engineer salary / solar/wind/BESS engineer pay

All of these reference SOC code 17-2071 (Electrical Engineers) in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey — the data source used throughout this site. Computer hardware engineers (SOC 17-2061) are tracked under a separate but adjacent SOC code; this site reports primarily electrical engineering pay including chip-design and semiconductor roles that often overlap with the computer hardware engineer SOC.

Compensation Structure: Base, Bonus, RSU, and Specialty Premium

Electrical engineer compensation varies enormously by employer type. The dominant structures across the profession:

• FAANG and tier-1 tech hardware engineering (Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA): base + bonus + RSU equity at competitive scales. Mid-level hardware engineers earn $180,000–$280,000+ total compensation; senior engineers $260,000–$400,000+; staff and principal engineers $400,000–$700,000+; distinguished engineers and senior fellows reach $700,000–$1,500,000+ at AI-hardware-focused teams (Apple silicon, Google TPU, NVIDIA GPU architecture, Amazon Annapurna Labs/Graviton).
• Top semiconductor companies (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Marvell, Apple silicon, MediaTek, Renesas, Infineon, STMicroelectronics): competitive base + bonus + RSU; senior IC designers, verification engineers, RTL engineers, physical design engineers, and architecture engineers reach $250,000–$500,000+ total compensation. AI-hardware-focused chip-design engineers at top companies frequently clear $500,000–$800,000+.
• AI hardware startups (Groq, Cerebras, SambaNova, Tenstorrent, Rain AI, Etched, MatX, d-Matrix): aggressive equity-heavy comp; senior chip-design engineers earn $350,000–$700,000+ in total compensation including pre-IPO equity.
• EV / automotive (Tesla powertrain, Rivian, Lucid, Ford EV, GM EV, Stellantis, Hyundai/Kia EV): competitive base + bonus + RSU; senior powertrain electrical engineers and BMS (Battery Management System) engineers reach $200,000–$400,000+.
• Defense and aerospace (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies / RTX, Boeing, BAE Systems, L3Harris, General Dynamics, Anduril, Palantir): base + bonus structures with security-clearance premium pay (TS/SCI adds 20–30%). Senior engineers reach $150,000–$280,000+; principal engineers and senior staff $200,000–$400,000+.
• Utility power engineering (PG&E, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion, NextEra, Xcel, ConEd, Exelon, Eversource, AEP, FirstEnergy, Entergy, DTE, ComEd, Edison International): $90,000–$185,000+ for staff through principal engineering positions. Strong pension and PSLF eligibility. PE-licensed power engineers at utilities reach upper SOC distribution at principal-engineer levels.
• Utility consulting (Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch, POWER Engineers, Quanta Services, Sargent & Lundy, Stantec, AECOM): base + bonus + project-completion bonus structures; senior power consultants reach $180,000–$300,000+.
• Renewable energy infrastructure (NextEra Energy Resources, EDF Renewables, Pattern Energy, Avangrid, Invenergy, First Solar, Sunrun, Lightsource bp, Engie): fastest-growing high-pay segment; senior renewable electrical engineers reach $160,000–$280,000+.
• Industrial automation and controls (Rockwell Automation, Honeywell Process Solutions, Emerson Electric, Siemens Industry, ABB, Schneider Electric): base + bonus + structured benefits; senior controls engineers reach $140,000–$220,000+.
• Federal civilian engineering (DoD R&D labs — NRL, AFRL, ARL; NASA; DOE National Labs — Sandia, Los Alamos, Livermore, Argonne, Oak Ridge, PNNL; FAA; FCC): $95,000–$200,000+ on GS pay scale plus federal pension and PSLF.
• Building electrical design / MEP engineering consulting — mid-range pay with PE-licensure premium.
• Independent consulting and specialty engineering practice — PE-licensed power engineers running independent consulting practices.

Total compensation at competitive tech employers typically includes performance bonus (10–25% target), RSU equity vested over 3–4 years, signing bonus ($25,000–$150,000+ at top tech for senior+), patent bonuses, conference and learning budget, and 401(k) match.

2026 Electrical Engineer Salary Projection

Electrical engineer pay has grown at a compound annual rate of 3.65% over the past five years, driven by intense demand for AI hardware engineering talent at semiconductor and Big Tech companies, the massive expansion of utility-scale renewable energy and grid modernization under the Inflation Reduction Act, the rapid scale-up of EV and battery manufacturing, persistent defense and aerospace demand, the ongoing CHIPS Act-funded semiconductor fab buildout in the U.S., and the structural supply constraint of ABET BSEE programs producing graduates at a slower pace than industry hiring demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment for Electrical Engineers to grow 9% through 2033, with strong outsized growth in semiconductor, AI hardware, renewable energy, and EV specialty areas.

A senior chip-design engineer at NVIDIA in Silicon Valley can earn three to five times what a power utility engineer at a small Mississippi cooperative takes home — even with similar years of experience. Four factors explain almost all of that gap: specialty and employer tier, education level and technical depth, location and remote-work policy, and level progression and seniority.

1. Specialty and Employer Tier: The Single Largest Pay Driver

The single biggest pay-shaping decision for an electrical engineer is specialty + employer tier:

• AI hardware and chip design (Apple silicon, Google TPU, NVIDIA GPU architecture, AMD CPU/GPU, Amazon Annapurna Labs, Microsoft AI hardware, Tesla Dojo, Meta MTIA): top of the electrical engineering pay distribution. Senior chip-design engineers (RTL, verification, physical design, architecture) at top AI-hardware teams reach $400,000–$800,000+ in total compensation.
• FAANG and tier-1 tech hardware engineering — broader Big Tech hardware roles (consumer electronics, networking ASIC, datacenter hardware, custom silicon, sensor design).
• Top semiconductor companies (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Marvell, MediaTek, Renesas, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Lam Research, Applied Materials, KLA, ASML) — competitive base + bonus + RSU; specialty depth in IC design, verification, layout, DFT (Design for Test), DFM (Design for Manufacturability) commands premium pay.
• AI hardware startups (Groq, Cerebras, SambaNova, Tenstorrent, Rain AI, Etched, MatX, d-Matrix, Lightmatter, Ayar Labs) — aggressive equity-heavy compensation with pre-IPO upside.
• EV and automotive electrical engineering (Tesla powertrain + BMS, Rivian, Lucid, Ford EV, GM EV, Stellantis, Hyundai/Kia EV, NIO US, BYD US) — competitive total compensation; senior powertrain and BMS engineers reach upper SOC.
• Defense and aerospace (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing, BAE Systems, L3Harris, General Dynamics, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Anduril, Palantir) — security-clearance premium (TS/SCI adds 20–30%); strong pay at principal-engineer levels.
• RF and wireless engineering (Qualcomm, Apple wireless, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung Networks, T-Mobile, Verizon) — specialty depth in 5G/6G, IEEE 802.11 family, mmWave, antenna design supports premium pay.
• Utility power engineering and renewable energy — strong pay with PE-licensure premium; senior renewable energy electrical engineers at NextEra, EDF Renewables, Pattern, Avangrid, Invenergy reach upper SOC. PE-licensed transmission and substation design engineers at major utilities and engineering consulting firms (Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch, POWER Engineers, Quanta).
• Federal R&D labs (DoE National Labs — Sandia, Los Alamos, Livermore, Argonne, Oak Ridge, PNNL; DoD R&D labs — NRL, AFRL, ARL; NASA JPL/Goddard) — strong pay with federal pension and PSLF; world-class research environment.
• Mid-tier electronics and industrial — Rockwell Automation, Honeywell, Emerson, Siemens Industry, ABB, Schneider Electric, Eaton; competitive mid-range pay.
• Federal civilian and government contracting (DOE, DOD contractors, NASA contractors) — strong pay with clearance premium for clearance-required roles.
• Building MEP / electrical design consulting — mid-range pay with PE-licensure premium; senior MEP electrical engineers at major firms (WSP, Stantec, Arup, BR+A, AKF Group, vanderweil).
• Independent consulting / sole practitioner — PE-licensed power engineers in independent practice.

2. Education Level and Technical Depth

For semiconductor, AI hardware, and Big Tech hardware roles, education level and technical depth shape pay substantially:

• BSEE only — entry to mid-career baseline. Pay near the median for traditional electrical engineering roles.
• MSEE — common at semiconductor and AI hardware companies. Adds substantive technical depth supporting senior IC design, verification, and architecture roles.
• PhD in EE / Computer Architecture / Solid-State Electronics — required or strongly preferred at top AI hardware companies (NVIDIA architecture team, Apple silicon team, Google TPU team, Tesla Dojo) and at semiconductor R&D roles. Reaches top of pay distribution.
• Specialty technical depth — IC design:
  • Digital design and RTL (Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL)
  • Verification (UVM, SystemVerilog, formal verification, emulation)
  • Physical design (synthesis, floorplanning, place-and-route, timing closure on Cadence Innovus or Synopsys ICC2)
  • Analog and mixed-signal IC design
  • RF IC design (mmWave, 5G, automotive radar)
  • Power management IC design
  • DFT (Design for Test) and silicon validation
• Embedded systems specialty — embedded firmware (C, C++, Rust on RTOS or bare-metal), microcontroller architecture (ARM Cortex, RISC-V), automotive safety (ISO 26262 ASIL-D), avionics safety (DO-178C, DO-254).
• Power systems specialty — transmission, distribution, substation, protection and control, power quality, renewable integration, energy storage.
• Security clearance (Secret / Top Secret / TS-SCI) — required for defense and aerospace work; supports 20–30% pay premium and access to clearance-restricted roles.
• PE Electrical license (Power / Electronics Controls and Communications / Computer Engineering) — required for power utility engineering and MEP electrical design; supports 15–25% pay differential in those specialties.
• IEEE Member / Senior Member / Fellow — IEEE Senior Member and Fellow grade recognition supports senior engineer reputation.
• Patents — senior electrical engineers at top tech companies regularly hold 10+ patents; patent bonuses at most tech employers support compensation.

3. Location and Remote-Work Policy

Metropolitan areas concentrating semiconductor, Big Tech, and aerospace/defense employers offer the highest electrical engineer pay:

• San Francisco Bay Area — Silicon Valley concentrates Apple silicon, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, Intel (Folsom design), AMD, Marvell, Broadcom, Cisco, Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, and dozens of AI hardware startups. Top reliable EE compensation in the U.S.
• Seattle Pacific Northwest — Microsoft hardware, Amazon Annapurna Labs (Graviton chip), Apple, Meta Reality Labs, T-Mobile network engineering. Strong tier-1 tech hardware pay.
• Austin Texas — Apple, Tesla, Samsung, Intel, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Infineon offices. No state income tax adds meaningful take-home advantage.
• San Diego — Qualcomm, Apple wireless, Broadcom, Cubic; RF and wireless specialty hub.
• Boston Cambridge — Analog Devices, Marvell, MathWorks, Raytheon, Anduril, biomedical electronics.
• Phoenix Arizona — Intel mega-fab buildout under CHIPS Act, TSMC Arizona, ON Semiconductor; growing fast.
• Portland Oregon — Intel, Lattice Semiconductor, Daimler Truck; semiconductor cluster.
• NYC tri-state — IBM Research, GlobalFoundries, IEEE headquarters region.
• DC metro / NoVA — defense and aerospace EE concentration; clearance-required roles at federal contractors.
• Detroit Michigan — automotive EE concentration at Ford, GM, Stellantis, automotive suppliers.
• Huntsville Alabama — defense and aerospace cluster.
• State income tax variation — EEs in no-income-tax states (TX, FL, TN, NV, WA) retain meaningfully more of their gross income.
• Hybrid mandates and on-site requirements — most semiconductor and Big Tech hardware engineering is hybrid or full-on-site because of dependence on lab equipment, fab access, and verification infrastructure. Pay concentrates around required-office cities.
• National-band pay (rarer for hardware) — power engineering, embedded systems, and consulting roles increasingly offer national-band pay; hardware engineering at top tech remains heavily geo-tiered.

4. Level Progression and Seniority

Electrical engineer compensation at competitive employers is heavily structured around level progression. Tech companies use level-based pay grids (L3 → L8+ at FAANG):

• Engineer I / Engineer II (L3–L4 at FAANG) — entry through mid-career; pay near the 10th–50th percentile.
• Senior Engineer (L5–L6 at FAANG) — first major step change; full bonus and equity components.
• Staff Engineer (L6 at FAANG) — IC track at top of bench EE pay; reaches the 75th–90th percentile.
• Senior Staff Engineer / Principal Engineer (L7 at FAANG) — IC technical leadership; reaches the 90th–95th percentile.
• Distinguished Engineer / Senior Principal / IEEE Fellow grade (L8+ at FAANG) — top of bench IC distribution; reaches the 99th percentile at AI-hardware-focused companies.
• Engineering Manager / Senior Manager / Director / VP of Engineering — management track; reaches highest pay bands but tracked under separate SOC for senior leadership.
• Patent bonuses, retention bonuses, special equity grants — top performers at semiconductor and AI hardware companies receive substantial retention packages and patent bonuses.
• Pivot to architect / fellow track — distinguished IC architects and silicon architects at top semiconductor and AI hardware companies receive premium individual-contributor recognition and pay.
• Pivot to founder / startup — many senior chip-design engineers leave for AI hardware startups (Groq, Cerebras, SambaNova, Tenstorrent, Rain, Etched, MatX, d-Matrix, Lightmatter) for equity-heavy upside.

For a complete city-by-city breakdown of electrical engineer salaries — including BLS percentile data (10th, 25th, 50th/median, 75th, 90th), local cost-of-living adjustments, and 2026 salary projections — browse the 1,676+ metro areas tracked in our dataset below.