Maintenance Engineer Salary in Birmingham 

Our research in the West Midlands found that Birmingham came in with the third-highest average salary. I’ve looked at 50 job adverts and spoken with 33 engineers in the area, so I’ve been able to build up a bit of a picture of what the market is offering engineers. 

If I’m honest, I’d expect Birmingham to be at the top of the list with salaries. As it’s a notoriously hard area to recruit in because of the M6. As a result, companies tend to increase salaries to attract engineers.

So, let’s delve into Birmingham’s engineers earning potential. 

Average Maintenance Engineer Salary in Birmingham: £40,507 

I was pleasantly surprised by this average. It has increased from the last set of salary research in Birmingham, coming in at a 1.5% increase. Which is a lot lower compared to the growth of the previous quarter. I would say this matches the expectation for engineers in the market, in terms of the bare minimum earning potential. Here are some interesting information things found: 

• Salaries ranged from £27,000 to £51,342.50 
• 48% of companies decided to share the job as a base salary and 52% shared salaries as a range. 
• 18% of adverts mention bias in their job titles. 
• Birmingham has a vast range of salaries, with 34% of salaries sitting below the £40,000 mark.  

Average Electrical Maintenance Engineer Salary: £43,953 

Again, with days being included, this earning potential is on the lower end. With many good, highly qualified and experienced electrical engineers expecting around the £50,000 mark. For your run-of-the-mill engineer, I would expect that this would be the minimum figure that they’d go to.

Average Mechanical Maintenance Engineer Salary … 

It wasn’t too surprising to see so few Mechanical Engineer roles. Just 2% of the adverts had a mechanical bias. In Birmingham, companies are crying out for Multi-Skilled or Electrical engineers. This is likely because of the industries in the area.  

Average Multi-Skilled Maintenance Engineers Salary: £41,243 

This average is really low. Ideally, you’d expect to see this average closer to the electrical pay grade. As the engineers will be doing both sides of the role. Here are some interesting points that I uncovered when analysing adverts in the area: 

• Unsurprisingly, most job adverts wanted engineers to adopt both mechanical and electrical skills as 64% of job adverts wanted multi-skilled engineers.  
• Salaries for multi-skilled engineers ranged from £28,000 – £51,342.50. 
• 22% of multi-skilled roles in Birmingham didn’t show a shift.  

Average Pay Per Shift In Birmingham 

The salary of different shift patterns is dependent on numerous factors. Therefore, you will notice some shifts have a higher average salary earning potential than others. What did I find out about Birmingham shifts? 

• There were 7 different shift patterns advertised in Q1 in Birmingham. 
• 22% of the job adverts have no shift pattern mentioned but still have a pay rate. 
• 4 on 4 off, Days and Double days were the most advertised shift patterns. 
• Panama, 7 on 7 off and Nights were the most uncommon shift patterns. 

Let’s check out the average earning potential for the most advertised shift patterns: 

The average pay for 4 on 4 off shift is £44,067 per annum 

As the most popular shift type in the area (26% of adverts offered this shift), the 4 on 4 off average does fall into what I would expect the market to deliver. Even could arguably be on the slightly higher side – when you consider things like bias.

That being said, this is a shift that can have unsociable working hours, so, a higher salary compensates for this. Realistically, if employers are paying any less than this they will struggle to hire. 

The average pay for Day shifts is £36,134 per annum 

For days, this does seem about right. It will always be on the lower side compared to the other shift types due to the shorter days (and less training that’s offered). As a result, it’s hard to find well-paid day shift positions.

The average pay for Double Day shifts is £44,067 per annum 

In Birmingham, the balance between Days and Double Days is quite close to each other. With this average pay being what I’d expect from this shift. From the engineers I’ve spoken to, this salary average also meets their requirements – which is great to see. As expected, electrical bias engineers’ average salaries are higher than multi-skilled engineers working a Double Days shift. 

My final thoughts on the average salary in Birmingham  

Most of the salaries do fall below what good engineers will expect. Normally, you’ll find that the engineers that are in work (which most of them are) will be paid substantially more than this. As employers have recognised that they have to raise their salaries above the market average to retain engineers. That being said, I think that these average salaries will increase as we continue through 2023. 

Advertised salaries are just a third of the picture. The rest is made up of the expectations of passive/active and then employed engineers. We talk a little about what passive and active engineers are looking for in our full salary guide, which is free for you to download.