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Salary Power Shifts Toward Employees, Away from Employers

Results of the annual Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) Salary Survey are in, and salaries/wages are higher than ever for packaging industry workers.

Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor, Packaging World
Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor, Packaging World

The results of the 2022 edition of the annual IoPP Salary Survey are in, and the responses map quite well to the existing packaging workforce milieu and “Great Resignation.” Labor is scarce and hard to retain—that set of circumstances precipitates a wide range of trends.

The biggest takeaway is that the balance of power has shifted away from the employer and toward the employee. One illustration of this can be found in the write-in answers on page 48. When asked what keeps them up at night regarding job security, 23% of respondents said “Nothing,” an unprompted, specific answer that’s reinforced by 84% of respondents telling us they are somewhat or very secure when asked about job security in a multiple-choice question.

Another 9%—again, without any prompting—said “Job Satisfaction” keeps them up at night. If labor were copious and cheap, job satisfaction would be a mere confection, a nice-to-have luxury. But 1 in 10 of the respondents to this survey say job satisfaction is a factor in whether they will stay loyal to their employer. This shows that companies aren’t just competing on salary for labor. They’re also competing on intangibles like job satisfaction, meaning, purpose, and doing good for the world. My PMMI Media Group colleague Sean Riley recorded a recent podcast on this phenomenon, with his workforce expert guest Dr. Jessica Kriegel telling him, “there is a war on talent, and the talent won.”


Listen to article   Listen to this podcast on job satisfaction with Dr. Jessica Kriegel.


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