Maintenance Engineer Salary Insights UK

You might have heard… we’re dropping our updated maintenance engineer hiring insights VERY SOON! Covering the West Midlands, East Midlands, and Warwickshire. These new salary insights are the ‘need-to-know’ information about the last two quarters (April-September).

But we thought it’d be nice to remind you what we found last time around! So, let’s get into that…

Overview of the Last Reports Salary Insights

On average, salaries in Warwickshire / Coventry were the highest. Coming in at second was the West Midlands. And East Midlands was lowest out of the 3.

Consistently between the 3 overarching areas, advertised salaries were lower than the averages we recorded from maintenance engineers (what they were on/what they expected to be earning). 

The Top 3 Highest-Paying Areas

How much does a maintenance engineer make across the United Kingdom?

According to the average salaries in all the areas we covered across Warwickshire / Coventry and the East and West Midlands. The highest-paying places were:

The 3 Lowest-Paying Areas

On the other side of the coin, some of the areas had to be at the bottom. And those were:

From looking at the above averages, it doesn’t look like there’s a huge difference between the lowest- and highest-paying areas. But in actual fact, Wolverhampton pays (on average) 14.7% lower than Banbury!

All of these averages are lower than our specialist recruiters would expect in the area. But why might that be the case? Well, from going through the data with a fine-tooth comb, we found the majority of advertised jobs that disclosed the shift type were after Days work.  

It is quite easy to guess that the Days shift type pays less due to the other shift types compensating the unsociable work hours for more money. Something which may have brought down the salary averages in each area. So, the type of shift for a role can heavily impact the salary. And we can share some interesting details about this.  

Summary of Shifts

The highest-paying shift slightly differed between the covered regions, but it was consistently a shift that involved some unsociable working hours. For instance, 4 on 4 off paid the most in the West and East Midlands. And Panama offered the highest pay in Coventry and Warwickshire.

The lowest-paying shift was consistent across all regions. Yes, you probably guessed it… Days! This was a pretty expected finding to be honest.

When we explored the shift demand across regions, it was sometimes the case that the shifts pay correlated with the demand. For example, in the West Midlands, Days were the highest in demand, but lowest paying across this region. Warwickshire and East Midlands also found this trend but with the shifts appearing the least in the sampled adverts (Panama and 4 on 4 off) being the highest paying.

This was likely the case because 4 on 4 off is the ‘marmite of shifts’. Engineers either love it, or they hate it. Whereas a lot more maintenance engineers are seeing Days shifts at the moment as it works around their home lives and has more ‘conventional work hours’ compared to the 4 on 4 off, for example.

West Midlands Salary Insights

We analysed 164 adverts between Jan – Mar 2023 to see what employers are paying. And we also listened to 59 maintenance engineers and summarised what they’re currently looking for.

What Companies are Advertising

The average salary in West Midlands as a whole was £41,047.

But the average value did vary between areas within this region. The average salaries in order from highest to lowest were…

What’s interesting is that in our report, Coleshill was the 2^nd highest paying area in the UK. And Wolverhampton was the very lowest paid area in the UK for maintenance engineers. So the extremes in Maintenance Engineer salaries for the UK are displayed in the same region.  

The most advertised biases were Electrical and Multi-Skilled.

Want to see how this compares to the newest report, with the salary insights collected between April – September 2023? Click the button below!

But let’s get back to summarising our previous findings. And have a look at each area in more detail:

Birmingham – £40,507

Coleshill – £44,928

Dudley – £40,696

Telford – £40,269

Walsall – £40,590

Wolverhampton – £39,291

What Maintenance Engineers are Expecting

Average expected salaries were a bit higher than the average advertised on job boards  

• Birmingham – £41,205 

• Telford – £40,711 

Shift with highest demand % and its average salary

• Birmingham – days = 60% and £38,923 

• Telford – 4 on 4 off = 50% and £42,545 

Warwickshire and Coventry Salary Insights 

We went through 153 job adverts and listened to 39 maintenance engineers.

What companies are advertising 

The average salary in this mix of areas was £42,708.

The areas in order from highest- to lowest-paying average were…

Want to see how this compares to the newest report, with the salary insights from data collected between April – September 2023? Click the button below!

We won’t dive as deep into each area. But we did find out some interesting bits about Coventry which you can compare to our updated report in extra detail as Coventry has its own Blog!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, and have a look at Coventry salary insights from the last report:

Coventry – £41,612

Want to read all the updated information about Coventry salaries? Click the button below!

What Maintenance Engineers are Expecting 

In these areas, the average salary according to what maintenance engineers are on/what they would expect is £41,670. This means that the average calculated from job adverts and what companies are offering is actually great news!

• 5% salary decrease for elec 
• 13% salary increase for mech 
• 0.9% salary decrease for multi 

Shift with highest demand % and the average salaries: 

• Nuneaton – days = 42.86% and £36,500 
• Banbury – days = 60% and £41,667 
• Coventry – no preferred shift = 42.86% and £44,167 

East Midlands Salary Insights 

For this region, we collected a whopping 249 adverts and listened to 94 maintenance engineers! 

Electrical and Multi-Skilled Bias were on top in terms of salary and demand!

The areas in order from highest- to lowest-paying average were…

Want to see how this compares to the newest salary insights, with findings of salary data collected between April – September 2023? Click the button below!

But let’s get back to summarising our previous salary insights. And have a look at each area in more detail:

Derby – £40,110

Want to read all the updated Derby salary insights? Click the button below!

Nottingham – £39,615

Want to read the updated salary insights for Nottingham? Click the button below!

Leicester – £41,524

Click the button below to see the updated Leicester salary insights!

What Maintenance Engineers are Expecting

Maintenance Engineers in Derby and Nottingham are on 3% more than the advertised salary! 

• Engineers in Derby are expecting £41,391 
• Engineers in Nottingham are expecting £40,994 

Some other interesting things revealed from speaking with maintenance engineers:

• Many engineers (35%) are seeking a role with solid Days shifts  
• Mechanically biased engineers earn a lot more than what’s advertised 

Shift with highest demand % and their salary 

• Derby – days = 42.86% and £40,136 
• Nottingham – 4 on 4 off = 50% and £42,545 

Salary Insights Summary

So, the general consensus of the Q1 salary insights was that the advertised maintenance engineer salaries were lower than the averages we derived from talking to the engineers themselves (what they were on/expected for a role).  

If these salary insights have made you stop and think. And you need some help with what to do with your hiring package, reach out today! It’s something that we can help with. In fact, it’s also worked into our Recruitment Process Outsourcing service as well.

Request Your Copy of Previous Guides

This blog is just summarising all of our previous salary insights. But if you want to see these findings in greater detail, all in one place. Download the guides today – just fill out the form below and let us know which salary insights you’re after!