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Salary Survey forecast is partly cloudy

IoPP’s 2014 Salary Survey reveals a slight retreat in salaries, yet with clear optimism for this year and for long-term packaging careers.

Pw 62373 2014salary Chart1

Uncertainty clouds the U.S. job market, and to an extent the results of the 2014 Salary Survey. How so?

Overall, 73% of respondents saw an increase in earnings during 2013 over 2012. And the average total compensation increase was 3.69%. Yet the average total compensation for 2013 was $109,509, down ever so slightly from the $110,213 reported in the 2013 survey.

The incongruity may be attributable to the fact that a large majority of respondents answering this year’s survey are different than the participants who completed last year’s survey. The portion of respondents who took the survey both years was not calculated.

The compensation decline in 2013 compared to 2012 represents the first time in the past five years that total compensation did not head northward (see Table A). To further cloud the picture, 72% of survey respondents enjoyed a bonus, with the average bonus reported as a healthy 10.18%.

As in previous years, the 2014 Salary Survey was conducted by the Institute of Packaging Professionals and Packaging World magazine, and is developed in cooperation with Gros Executive Recruiters, a packaging sector executive recruiting firm. Kane Consulting provided market research for the survey.

Addressing the salary incongruity, Dennis Gros, President of Gros Executive Recruiters, asks, “Has the workforce of professionals become so accustomed to a tepid economy that they delude themselves into thinking that a $704 cut in pay is the same as a pay increase?”

If the slight salary dip is the bad news, Gros offers a brighter long-term outlook, saying, “Packaging is, overall, a stable occupation. Almost all of the respondents who changed jobs found another job, presumably a better job. Only two percent reported they are currently unemployed.”

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