Suppliers' salaries similar to packagers' (sidebar)

Males represented 86% of the 92 supplier representatives responding to an early 2002 salary survey conducted on Packaging World’s Web site, Packworld.com.

More than half of the survey’s respondents worked either in marketing or engineering, followed by titles in packaging, R&D, management, purchasing, quality assurance, and production.

When asked how much experience respondents had in their current position, just over half said between one and five years; 16% said six to 10 years; 16, 11 to 19 years; 9% less than a year; and 8%, 20 years or more. The percentages were more evenly balanced when respondents were asked how many years they had worked in packaging. For example, 26% reported one to five years; another 26% said 11 to 19 years; 23% reported 20 or more years in packaging; 22% said six to 10; whereas only 3% said less than a year.

Nearly one-third (32%) of respondents were between the ages of 30 and 39; about half in their 40s and 50s; 14% in their 20s; 4% were at least 60.

By company size, 34% of respondents worked for companies with 100 or fewer employees, and 31% at firms with 101 to 500 people. In contrast, only 10% said their companies employed 501 to 2ꯠ, but a full 25% reported their companies employed more than 2ꯠ.

The Midwest was listed as their company location by 27% of respondents, followed by the Northeast (17%); the Southeast (16%); and the Southwest (12%).

As for education, 48% had earned a four-year degree; 19% a two-year technical degree; 17% a postgraduate degree; and 16% a high school diploma. Meanwhile, only 17% of respondents said they had received a packaging-specific education.

See the story that goes with this sidebar: Climbing the ladder of f/f/s technology