View news and innovations from PACK EXPO 2024
View all the latest news and innovations from PACK EXPO International 2024

IoPP's 2019 Salary Survey: Youth optimistic on salary

In IoPP’s annual Salary Survey, we’re witnessing the older pros with higher salaries begin to exit the workforce, leaving Millennials the keys to the packaging castle with job security and optimism about future earnings.

Packaging World July 2019 cover
Packaging World July 2019 cover

There’s more than one way to interpret the findings, but the just-the-facts-ma’am version is that responses to our annual salary survey skewed younger and less experienced than in years past. Correspondingly, the reported average salary is down, but by a hearteningly small amount.

The glass-is-half-empty approach may bemoan the sheer volume of institutional packaging knowledge—and attendant command of salary—that’s aging out of the packaging workforce. The flat year-over-year salary results are a natural outgrowth of that highly capable, but expensive, exiting cohort.

The positive flip side for the younger workforce is that this dynamic imparts a premium on talented youth that can (at least attempt to) replace the older cohort and do so without the bloated salaries. This youth movement ought to feel secure in their jobs since they are in tight supply, and confident in their upward mobility since fewer people are occupying those places at the top. Indeed, the numbers bear this out (See “Job security is trending up” chart), giving employees an advantage over their packaging industry employers in the salary and job marketplace.

The following charts, graphs, tables, and illustrations will explore this dynamic and several others. Numbers are based off of an online survey, completed in April and early May 2019, which examined annual compensation earned in 2018. Previous years’ results are included for context and trend dimension. Conducted by the Institute of Packaging Professionals and Packaging World magazine, the 2019 Salary Survey is developed in cooperation with Dennis Gros, President, MBS Advisors Recruiting Division, with Kane Consulting tabulating and summarizing the results.

Chart 1

Domestically, the weighted average salary was down slightly in 2018 (as reported in early 2019). The difference? A slight increase in respondents in the $80,000 to $100,000 range, and a corresponding decrease in respondents in the greater than $175,000. More on that in the graphic titled “Youth movement.”

Chart 2

PMMI’s Free Career Toolkit: Promoting Awareness of Packaging and Processing Careers

Studies show there will be a shortage of two million workers over the next decade. PMMI’s Career Toolkit providesresources to help companies address the critical shortage of skilled employees and promote awareness of careers in thepackaging and processing industry. The toolkit includes:

Chart 3

Chart 4

In 2019, we saw a shift in the respondent base. Although the base of respondents increased by almost 5% to 1004 from 923 domestic participants, respondents in 2019 were younger. The average age of respondents dropped from 46 in 2018 to 44 in 2019, a substantial drop in age. As a corollary, the average years of experience in the packaging field fell from 14.7 to 14.1. Finally, only 37% of the respondents to this year’s survey indicated that they recalled taking this survey last year. As a result of these demographic changes among respondents, the overall average salary dropped slightly. The good news is the drop is only slight despite the youth movement, and it is most notably reflected in more respondents in the $80,000 to $100,000 range, and fewer at the top of the pay scale. “Growing old gracefully has a financial benefit,” Gros says. “The highest wage earners are in the 55+ age bracket, with average compensation of [about] $142,000. The highest wage earners also have 20 years or more of experience, at an average $149,110.”

Chart 5

“Where are the big bucks? This ranking will not surprise you,” Gros says. “Corporate Management, then Consultants who work for Corporate Management, then Marketing/Sales, R&D, Production, Engineering, Supply Chain, then Structural Design. Note—in this survey, the people who produce the product earn almost as much as those who are developing the product. In my experience, degrees are optional for many jobs in production. However, an advanced degree is often required for a job in Research and Development.”

New e-book on Multipacking and Case Packing
Read how to extend the life of your case packing equipment and best practices for efficient shrink bundling operation. Plus, learn the differences between wraparound & regular slotted containers.
Read More
New e-book on Multipacking and Case Packing