Pay Scale at a Forensic Engineering Company

My brother works as a forensic scientist and has an honours degree in Applied Biosciences with Chemistry but still gets a low wage. I hope you are lucky and find others who get a good wage but I think you may find the pay scale is rather low.

Well a big difference is that atty's hire us and my fee's are paid by them i.e. not overhead. I am being billed out at 125.00 per hour to the atty. What does anyone think is a fair share of that for the "employee"?

I do not expect that you will find the specific industry "standard" you seek, but you should look at the NSPE web site. They do an annual salary survey in the industry, adjusted by location and specific to the discipline.

When considering compensation I think you should look at the following factors:

As a part of an organization you, as a revenue generating part of the organization, must carry part of the general overhead - utilities, office space, insurance, marketing, non revenue generating staff, etc. How much of that is your fair burden?

Next, what are your total billings per year? Subtract from that number the general overhead and the cost of your personal benefits package.

The remainder is divided by you and the employer. Your share is your gross pay (less benefits). His share is profit.

Unless he makes a profit off of your efforts, there is no reason to employ you.

Unless you make enough to make it worth your while, you need to move on.

The actual mechanics of this process is not usually considered by the employee. And if you try and quantify your share of the overhead it is probably not going to be an accurate analysis anyway. Employees just do not have the information available to accurate estimate the actual overhead. They always way underestimate overhead. That is a big reason why most that leave to start their own operation fail. The other reason is that they way underestimate the volume of business that they can generate. It can take years to develop a clientèle, a reputation, and the basis for sustained assignments.

Unless you want to work on a strict commission basis (you provide your own benefits) then looking at your "fair share" percentage of the billable hourly rate is an unrealistically simplistic approach - based on my experience that not all hours worked are actually "billable" hours.

Even commission based compensation will be reviewed by the employer. He still has to cover his overhead and make a profit - or go out of business. It all comes down to your production and the quality of the product you produce.

This is especially important in a forensic engineering product. The Forensic Engineer must meet a higher standard than the guy that helped create the mess you are studying. One foul up can reduce a whole career to rubble. How do you quantify, and place a price tag on that risk? As a member of the organization you are "protected" to an extent. That protection comes at a price. How much of that $125.00 per hour is that worth? It comes in the form of professional liability insurance, but the principals in the firm must personally indemnify the insurance company. Not you.

There is a lot to consider.

Obviously, I am speaking from the owner's point of view - but don't let greed lead you into a bad decision. Concentrate on becoming the best you can be in your field. The rest will take care of itself. If you are a rainmaker, others will come looking for you and the employer will either pay to keep you, or you'll move to greener pastures.

Supply and demand.

Wow, an accurate and lucid account of how the world really works. Thanks Jeff

I understand many people are underpaid but in order to address this issue and to be taken serious I really need to find any industry standards out there on pay scales for my job. If I were a paralegal for example I could go online and find average pay for that job. All I am looking for is some assistance as I can find no information. Being paid less than 20% of what I am being billed out at seems unreasonable to me.

I'm sure this is not what you want to hear but I work for a company that has Field service engineers (Industrial Controls) and their pay is about 17-20% of what is billed to the customer. They do get a company supplied vehicle with fairly liberal usage so that would add a few percentage points. Are you hourly or salary? Good luck finding information!

Shawn

Hi, Tracy.

I modified your headline so that it reflects your question. Titles such as "please Help" may not get much of a response. Where are you located? If you're in the U.S., what part of the country are you in?

Moose

P.S. Have you thought about registering with CR4? By doing so, you can be notified automatically whenever someone posts a comment to your question.

thanks !

I am new to this forum and was not sure how it worked. I think that I did register...

I am in Arizona.

Check on the munisipal job sites of a big city in your area for Forensic Investigator and Police Photographer. A Forensic Investigator in Phiadelphia, PA makes around $44,000/yr. I hope this is helpful.

Many moons ago I was employed by a local builder who paid me £6.50 per hour. When he sent me on site he charged the client £25 per hour for my time. At the time this was a generally accepted price. I know this is a different field all together but that works out at me getting 26% of what my boss was making.

Like someone else said earlier though, I didn't have to pay for the workshop, the large machinery, the collosal electricity bill, the liability insurance, the materials, then try to make myself a profit on top of that. I remember my boss coming in one day when I was making a batch of 10 external doors and he said that if I didn't have them finished in a week he would be making no money on them. At £1000 per door you would hardly have thought that but then there were other guys in the workshop doing sod all and they still have to be paid even if they aren't pulling their weight.

In other consulting industries a 2.5 multiplier is a low end minimum required to maintain an office, staff, and critical mass to run a company.

Billable is $1.00 pay is $1.00/2.5=$.40