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Focus: Sourcing/Procurement

Feature Article from Our Sourcing and Procurement Subject Area - See All

From SCDigest's On-Target e-Magazine

- July 11, 2012 -

 
Supply Chain News: Purchasing and Procurement Professionals - How Does Your Salary Measure Up?

 

Average Comp was Down in 2011, but Median was Up to $90,000, Annual ISM Survey Finds; Women CPOs Raking it In

 

SDigest Editorial Staff 

 

In May, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released its annual salary survey for purchasing and procurement professionals, also worth a look to find trends and see how your pay grade measures up.

SCDigest Says:

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We're not quite sure why, but there is quite a variance in compensation depending on the industry. For the second straight year, by far the highest average was in the accommodations and food service industry.

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The headline news is that supply management professionals is now $102,218, a decline of 1.39% compared with 2010, when the average first moved into six-figure territory. The figures are self-reported by survey respondents and include both regular salary and any bonuses received.

However, most of that decline must have come at the top, as the median salary increased 3.45% from 2010 to $90,000. The percentage of supply management professionals earning $100,000 or more continued to climb, increasing from 38 to 41% in 2011 compared with 2010.

The highest compensation reported among this year's respondents was $682,000.

Among the respondents who received a bonus in 2011, the average bonus received was $20,792, which represented approximately 20% of the total gross salary received. However, it is not clear from the ISM report what percentage of supply managers received a bonus in 2011.

Bonuses probably played a key factor in whether "salary" went up or down. For those respondents that said they received a salary increase in 2011, the average was 6.7%, up sharply from 3.5% and 2.8% reported in 2010 and 2009, respectively. For those that saw compensation decrease last year, the average decline was 10.1%.

Of all respondents, 79% (compared with 66% in 2010) indicated their salaries increased, with 7% reporting salary declines in 2011. It seems to us changes in always volatile bonus levels could account for a significant portion of the increases and decreases in compensation, as for example, the fact the managers don't too often see their salaries cut, but often do see sharp declines or increases in bonus levels depending on the year.

Of course, a variety of factors go into what determines a supply manager's compensation, some directly, such as position level, some indirectly, such as level of education, which often impacts the position level manager starts at and/or reaches in the company.

The ISM report breaks out several of these factors:

Position Level: Chief Purchasing/Procurement Officers saw average compensation of just over $290,000 last year. Interestingly, women CPOs averaged more than $387,000, while men came in at $252,000. Our guess there: since there are far fewer women CPOs, they are in greater demand than men. "Manager" level purchasing employees came in with an average salary of $102,000. The full list of compensation by position level is shown in the graphic below.

 

Average Compensation by Position and Gender

 

 

Source: ISM

 

Experience: Naturally enough, experience correlates with position level and therefore compensation. The average salary for supply management professionals with 11 years of experience or more was $107,000, while the average salary for those with two years or less of experience was $69,000 (which is not too bad for two years of experience, it seems to us.)

(Sourcing and Procurement Article Continues Below)

CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

 


Industry: We're not quite sure why, but there is quite a variance in compensation depending on the industry. For the second straight year, by far the highest average was in the accommodations and food service industry (hotels, restaurant chains), at over $161,000. That was substantially above number 2 finance and insurance ($121,000), professional, scientific and technical services ($116,000), retail trade ($114,000) and mining ($113,000). Public sector employees were at the bottom, with educational services trailing the pack at about ($73,000), just behind the government/public administration sectors at about $75,000. We'll note this probably results in part from the fact that the public sectors often don't have really high pay at the top positions to bring up the overall average versus the CPOs or VPs at private sector firms.

Education: Supply management professionals with a master's earned 24% more in salary than their counterparts with only a bachelor's degree, while respondents with a doctorate earned 26% more than those with a master's and 56% more than those with a bachelor's degree. As always, the relationships are complex - it could be that more ambitious and talented people tend to get more advanced degrees, rather than the advanced degrees themselves drive the higher salaries, although there likely is some connection there as well.

Certainly, new hires coming in with an advanced degree often start at higher salary levels, and that can have a lifetime effect on annual compensation. (We'll note the survey data showing many of basic and advanced degrees attained by respondents were in fields outside of supply management.)

Gender: The average salary among the male respondents in this year's survey was $112,000, nearly the same as 2010. For female respondents, the average salary declined 5%, from $90,000in 2010 to about $85,433 in 2011. Men earned an average of 32%more than their female counterparts. The chart above breaks out those differences by position level.

The numbers were based on surveys from 826 respondents. The full report is available for free for ISM members, or can be purchased by non-ISM members at a modest cost. A summary report is available a no charge to anyone at the ISM web site.

 

Any reaction to this year's ISM salary survey? Do these numbers seem about right to you? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.



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