Salary surveys are odd things, almost like that horror movie which demands your attention even though you know you might be scared by what you see. There is a strange fascination with seeing where your wage fits in with the average.

If you come out as average, all well and good, and above average is even better. But if your wage is below then it leaves you wondering exactly who these people are who earn so much, where do they work, and can I get a job there…

Before you get depressed or elated though just remember, as Aaron Levenstein, a US politician in the 1930s, said: “Half the people in the world are below average.”

The average salary in this survey comes out as £36,080, but 56 per cent of respondents earn less than this. While four per cent earn £70,000 or more, rather shockingly, one per cent earn less than £10,000 and two per cent earn between £10,000 and £15,000 - less than half the average (see graph).

When analysed by job function, inevitably the most highly paid are in management roles, with sales/marketing coming in fourth. With the exception of senior engineer, the engineering job titles are at the lower end - all clocking in at under the average salary (see graph).

As expected, corporate directors earn the most money, with an average of £60,000. These are followed by technical director at £50,510; corporate manager at £40,170; and technical manager at £39,570.

Non-managerial roles in design and development, production, technical, and test and service, range from £33,790 down to £26,460.

To earn the most money you need to work in the components sector, which is probably benefiting from the growth of fabless chip design firms. This is followed by the traditionally more lucrative computers sector, followed by communications and broadcast.

To earn above the national average, you need to be in East Anglia, London, the south east and Scotland, but avoid the Midlands and the north west as the average wage is below £32,000 here.

When it comes to getting a pay rise the electronics industry is not doing too well. According to the Office of National Statistics, the average annual rate of salary growth in the UK at the time of the survey was 4.3 per cent, but 78 per cent of respondents got less than this with the average for the electronics industry being 3.44 per cent.

A lucky six per cent got a pay rise of 11 per cent or more; seven per cent got a pay increase of between seven to ten per cent; and nine per cent got a five to six per cent rise. The majority - 39 per cent - got a pay increase of three to four per cent. 23 per cent received a one to two per cent raise.

No change was reported by 15 per cent, while an unlucky one per cent actually saw their wage decrease by at least five per cent.

Despite already earning the most, corporate directors were highest in the pay increase stakes with an average 4.82 per cent rise. Corporate managers and technical non-managers also enjoyed increases above the average at 3.87 and 3.69 per cent.

The future does not look especially good for pay rises in electronics either, with smaller pay rises expected in 2005.

Although 13 per cent expect an increase of five per cent or more, 41 per cent expect to still be in the three to four per cent range, and a quarter expect a one to two per cent rise. The average works out at 2.88 per cent.