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Management pay a worthy goal

Managers in packaging and manufacturing departments are packing away the highest salaries among packaging professionals. Packaging World's exclusive survey shows they're also very satisfied with their jobs.

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Good news for those pursuing management jobs in packaging: The results from Packaging World's reader survey indicate that managers do indeed earn a good living. In addition, job satisfaction was high among the vice-presidents, plant managers and department managers who responded-the highest levels of any job title studied.

The survey was sent to 2ꯠ readers earlier this year with responsibilities in packaging, engineering, purchasing, production, and maintenance. (For stories analyzing total respondents, as well as detailed reports on packaging engineers and purchasing agents, see PW, Sept. '97, p. 52 & p. 60, Oct. '97, p. 48.)

While the survey was focused on packaging engineers and purchasing agents, some 85 (or 30%) of the 280 respondents identified themselves as managers. For the sake of analysis, PW editors grouped management respondents into two broad categories. One is department managers, which consists of respondents with supervisory duties in packaging, engineering, manufacturing, production, purchasing, or maintenance. The other broad category includes vice-presidents, plant managers or directors in those same functional areas.

Top managers are top earners

It came as no surprise to PW editors that those at the very highest levels of management-plant managers, VPs and directors-take home the highest salaries reported by all respondents. Indeed, over half of plant managers/VPs earn $70ꯠ or more (Chart 1).

Managers also did well in the pay-raise department, compared with other respondents. Almost 13% of all managers received a pay raise of 8% or more in the last year (Chart 2). Most significantly, almost 20% of top managers surveyed reported a pay increase last year of over 8%. Only about 10% of department managers could make a similar claim.

As might be expected, those who commanded the highest salaries had the most experience. For example, over 80% of plant managers and VPs had over 15 years' packaging experience in their career. About 70% of department managers had 15+ years' experience. In contrast, just under 50% of packaging engineers had as much experience.

Interestingly, higher earnings didn't necessarily correlate with higher education levels. About 70% of all managers responding to the survey have a college or post-graduate degree. In contrast, 80% of packaging engineers, who earn less than managers, are college or post-college educated. Only about 60% of purchasing agents have college or post-graduate degrees.

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