How to Negotiate Your Engineering Salary: A Practical Guide for Engineers in Scotland

Engineering salary negotiation is not about being pushy. It is about knowing what your skills are worth in the Scottish market, understanding the whole package rather than just the basic, and putting a reasonable case to the employer at the right moment. Most engineers undersell themselves because they negotiate on basic salary alone and forget the shift allowance, overtime and pension that often make up a large share of what they actually take home.

This guide covers how to research your market rate, how to value a full package, how to answer the salary question without boxing yourself in, and how to negotiate when you are working through a recruiter. There is a worked example at the end.

Step 1: research your market rate before you talk numbers

You cannot negotiate well if you do not know the going rate. Start with real Scottish data rather than UK averages, which are pulled upwards by London and the South East and can give a false picture for a role in Lanarkshire, Fife or the Highlands.

Our Scottish Engineering Salary Guide 2026 is built from live Scottish adverts for permanent roles and quotes basic salary. A selection of the ranges:

The ranges are wide for a reason. Where you sit depends on a handful of things you can point to:

• Sector. The same job title pays differently in food and drink, energy, aerospace or construction. Regulated and high-consequence sectors usually pay more.
• Skill breadth. A genuinely multi-skilled maintenance engineer, electrical and mechanical, is worth more than a single-discipline one. PLC and controls ability moves the needle in almost every sector.
• Qualifications. HNC, HND, degree or chartership, plus specific tickets relevant to the role.
• Shift pattern. Basic salary for shift roles is often set alongside a separate allowance, so compare like with like.
• Location. Remote sites and areas with a tight labour market can pay more to attract people.

Once you know the range, place yourself in it honestly. If you are a year out of your apprenticeship, the top of the range is not your number yet. If you have ten years on high-speed packaging lines and can fault-find PLCs, you should not be anchoring at the bottom.

Step 2: value the total package, not just the basic

In engineering, the basic salary is often only part of the story. Two offers with the same basic can be thousands of pounds apart once everything else is counted. Before you negotiate, list every element of your current package and the new one side by side.

Shift allowance

Usually paid as a percentage of basic or a fixed annual amount. It can be the biggest single difference between two offers. Check whether it is guaranteed, whether it is pensionable and whether it stops if you move onto days. Our guide to shift patterns, overtime and allowances goes into this in detail.

Overtime

There is no legal right to an enhanced overtime rate in the UK; it depends on your contract (GOV.UK: overtime rights). Ask what the overtime rate is, how much is realistically available and whether it is voluntary. Overtime that is “available” but never offered is worth nothing in your calculations.

Call-out and standby

If the role includes a call-out rota, find out the standby payment, the call-out rate, any minimum hours paid per call-out and how often you would realistically be on the rota.

Pension

Under automatic enrolment the legal minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings in total, with at least 3% from the employer (GOV.UK: workplace pensions). Many employers pay more, and some match higher employee contributions. A few extra percent from the employer is real money over a career.

Car, van or car allowance

Field and multi-site roles often come with a company van, a car or a cash allowance. Ask about private use, fuel and whether mileage from home counts.

Holidays

The statutory minimum for a five-day week is 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days, and employers can choose to include bank holidays in that (GOV.UK: holiday entitlement). Check how many days you get on top of bank holidays, and how holidays work on a shift rota.

Other items worth asking about

• Bonus schemes and how often they have actually paid out
• Paid training, qualifications and professional body fees
• Sick pay above the statutory level
• Life assurance and health cover
• Tools, PPE and clothing
• Hours: a 37.5 hour week and a 40 hour week on the same salary are not the same offer

Step 3: how to handle the salary question

At some point you will be asked “what are you looking for?” or “what are you on at the moment?”. How you answer shapes the rest of the conversation.

When you are asked for your expectations

Give a realistic figure or narrow range based on your research, and tie it to the package. For example: “Based on my experience with multi-skilled maintenance on high-speed lines, I am looking for a basic in the region of £50,000, with the shift allowance on top. I am open on how the package is made up.” That is confident, specific and leaves room.

Avoid a very wide range. If you say “somewhere between £42,000 and £52,000”, expect to be offered £42,000.

When you are asked for your current salary

Be honest. Employers and recruiters will often see it later anyway, and getting caught out is worse than any negotiation loss. Give the full picture, not just the basic: “My basic is £44,000, I get a shift allowance and regular overtime, so I earned around £53,000 last year.” That stops a new employer benchmarking you against a basic that understates what you really earn.

Timing

The strongest point to negotiate is after the employer has decided they want you and before you accept. Push hard on money in a first interview and you risk looking more interested in the salary than the job. Leave it until the offer and you have the most leverage.

Step 4: negotiating the offer

When the offer arrives, do not accept or reject on the spot. Thank them, say you are keen, and ask for it in writing with the full package so you can review it properly. Then:

1. Compare total earnings. Put both packages side by side on an annual basis, including allowance, realistic overtime, pension and car.
2. Pick one or two asks. A short, clear request is easier to say yes to than a list of five.
3. Give a reason. Point to evidence: the salary guide range, your specific skills, what you would be giving up.
4. Be flexible on the mix. If the basic is capped by a pay band, ask about the start date for a pay review, a higher pension contribution, an extra few days’ holiday or paid training.
5. Know your walk-away figure. Decide it before the conversation, not during.

Be careful about using an offer purely to get a raise from your current employer. If you are thinking about it, read our counter-offer guide first.

Working through a recruiter

If you are applying through an agency, the recruiter usually handles the salary conversation with the employer for you. That has advantages: they know what the client has budgeted, what similar people were hired on and how much flex there is. It also means you can be completely open about what you want without the awkwardness of negotiating directly with a future manager.

To get the best from it:

• Tell the recruiter your real current package and your target figure at the start, not at offer stage.
• Tell them what matters beyond salary: shift pattern, commute, pension, progression.
• If your expectations change, tell them straight away.
• Ask them what the budget is and whether it is fixed.

Worked example: a maintenance engineer weighing an offer

This is an illustrative example, not a real case. An experienced maintenance engineer in Lanarkshire is on a basic of £44,000, days only, 39 hours, with overtime at time and a half that averages about 4 hours a week, and a 5% employer pension. A bottling plant in Fife offers £46,000 basic on a 4 on 4 off pattern, with a shift allowance of 20% and a 3% employer pension on qualifying earnings.

At first glance it is only £2,000 more. Counted properly:

• Current job: £44,000 basic, plus roughly £6,000 of overtime (4 hours a week at time and a half over 46 working weeks), plus £2,200 employer pension. Around £52,200 in total.
• New offer: £46,000 basic plus a £9,200 shift allowance is £55,200 in guaranteed pay, plus an employer pension of around £1,320 on qualifying earnings (capped at the £50,270 upper limit). Around £56,500 in total, before any overtime.

The engineer’s case: bottling hall experience and multi-skilled ability are what sit at the top of the £40,000 to £65,000 Maintenance Engineer range in our Scottish Engineering Salary Guide 2026, so a basic of £48,000 is reasonable. The recruiter goes back with that and a request to match the current 5% pension. The employer comes back at £47,500 with the pension matched. The engineer accepts because the total package is clearly ahead and the shift pattern suits them.

The lesson: the negotiation was made on facts and on the whole package, and the engineer knew their numbers before the offer arrived.

How Engineering Recruit Scotland can help

Engineering Recruit Scotland was set up in 2020 and our directors have 25 years recruiting engineers across Scotland. Every engineer we represent is interviewed by phone and on a Teams video call before an employer sees their CV, and each CV goes to the employer with a written summary of your background, why you are looking and your salary expectations, so the money conversation starts on the right footing. Our consultants are not paid commission, so the advice you get on an offer is straight.

Browse our current engineering jobs or upload your CV and we will be in touch. You can also call us on 01698 464 099. For more guidance, see our engineering career advice hub and interview tips.