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Job satisfaction high in photonics but fair pay an issue, SPIE research finds
l Women still earn less than men, the report found
l 96 per cent of women and men enjoy their work
Differences of opinion still exist when it comes to fair pay and promotion in optics and photonics fields, but job satisfaction remains high overall, according to the 2017 SPIE Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report. The report, the seventh compiled
annually by SPIE, is the largest international study of the photonics industry. The largest difference of opinion in
the survey concerns employee views on fairness of pay and promotion. The report shows that 71 per cent of women feel they are paid fairly, versus 79 per cent of men. With a few exceptions, the report shows that women still earn less than men overall. The largest wage differences between men and women are associated with North American and higher-income Asian countries, employment at not-for-profit organisations, and employment of 26-30 years. However, women and men reported similar levels of job satisfaction in most
categories: 96 per cent enjoy their work, 95 per cent find their work meaningful, and 93 per cent feel that their work is respected by their peers. Nearly equal percentages of women (82 per cent) and men (83 per cent) would recommend their jobs to a child or a friend. ‘A solid grounding in optics and photonics has provided many of us opportunities to rewarding careers. This will continue to be the case in this century of the photon as the impact of our technologies on quality and quantity of life continues its inexorable progress,’ said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs.
“A solid grounding in optics and photonics has provided many of us opportunities to rewarding careers”
Arthurs also pointed to political changes
that could affect the movement of skilled workers, and the importance for countries to invest in innovation infrastructure. ‘To maximise the rewards from
intellectual stimulation that are so important to many of us, and to be well rewarded financially, we must be open to change, perhaps to the challenges and social disruption of migration. Human talent is globally dispersed, but the
distribution of brains does not correlate with the geographic disparity in salaries,’ Arthurs noted. He referenced a table in the report showing pay by country, with median salaries ranging from $117,000 in the United States to less than $3,000 in Ukraine. ‘As invention and entrepreneurship
proliferate in our field, salary differentials may diminish, but in this regard as in much else, hope is not a strategy,’ Arthurs said. ‘Learning from the success of Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore in investing in the complete innovation infrastructure from education to global product revenues is a better approach for countries without legacy technology-based economies. And unless the established leading economies pay attention to the investment in education and research, future versions of this salary survey will have ranking changes.’ North America and Oceania stand out as
the regions with the highest salaries, with median earnings well above other areas. The report also highlighted:
l Entry-level pay for PhDs is highest in Switzerland; median salary of $81,970
l 32 per cent of workers in higher-income Asian countries work 50 or more hours per week, while 21 per cent of Ukrainian workers do 55 or more hours per week.
European Commission commits to widespread deployment of self-driving technology
The European Commission (EC) is ‘fully committed’ to the fast deployment of self- driving technologies in Europe, it was announced during the first European Conference on Connected and Automated Driving, which took place on 3-4 April in Brussels. According to the Commission,
it is now crucial that the EU provides the right legal and regulatory framework, innovation-friendly conditions and support to self-driving research projects and large-scale trials.
The organisation is now
supporting the development of such a framework in line with the Amsterdam Declaration made in April 2016, in which EU transport ministers outlined the steps necessary for the development of self-driving technology.
The framework for connected and automated driving encompasses policy as well as regulatory and public support actions for the development and deployment of driverless technologies, and will provide users with a wide portfolio of mobility services, strengthen the competitiveness of the EU industry, and increase sustainability without curbing mobility. ‘Automated road transport is such a fast-moving and important area that it requires a coordinated and collaborative approach within and between the public and the private sphere,’ said Carlos Moedas, European commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. ‘A vast range of sectors, from the automotive industry and road infrastructure to IT and telecoms, have a role to play in exploring
this new frontier. That’s why this first European event is so important.’
The commission has also commented that the EU’s active involvement in this deployment of technology will be essential to overcome challenges such as the safety issues, public acceptance, liability and ethical issues
that must be addressed before automated driving systems can become widely available. The EU’s current Mobility
Package, and its Strategic Transport Research and Innovation Agenda, includes a roadmap on connected and automated transport to steer and coordinate European research.
8 Electro Optics May 2017
@electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
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