Average Industry Pay Raise Jumps To Highest Level In Five Years
The average pay hike for sponsorship practitioners was 5.8 percent in ’06, a significant increase from the average 5.2 percent raises earned in each of the previous two years, according to IEG SR’s 11th annual salary survey.
The 5.8 percent mark is the survey’s highest since a 6 percent average in ’01 and represents a major rebound from the post-9/11 4.6 percent average in ’02.
The industry’s average salary increase once again was much larger than the U.S. average. A study conducted by human resources consulting firm Hewitt Assoc. LLC shows the average raise for non-executive salaried exempt workers–those for whom overtime pay is not required–was 3.6 percent this year, the same rate as in ’05.
Further good news is found in IEG SR’s findings that the number of sponsorship professionals who received no pay increase in ’06 was just 31 percent, down from 34 percent the year before.
Taking out those who did not get a raise, the average hike for those who did was 7.8 percent, up from 7.7 percent the past two years.
The majority of agency personnel, 57 percent, did not receive a raise this year, but the sector’s average pay hike was the second highest of the four tracked by the survey at 6.1 percent. The average raise among for-profit properties was 8.3 percent; 78 percent of employees in the sector received a salary increase.
Seventy-one percent of nonprofit-property employees earned a raise, averaging 4.6 percent, while 89 percent of sponsors had their pay hiked by an average of 4.8 percent.
Overall industry job satisfaction rose from last year’s 7.3 on a 10-point scale to 7.4. Agency personnel were the most satisfied, continuing a long-time pattern, averaging an 8.0 rating for the second year in a row. Employees of both types of properties registered a 7.3 job satisfaction rating, while sponsors recorded a 7.2.
Average hours worked per week ticked up one to 50 in this year’s survey. Agency personnel put in 52 hours a week; those working for for-profit properties, 51; sponsors, 50 and nonprofits, 48.
Who Earns What
The average total annual compensation–including salary, bonus and commission–jumped significantly for two industry sectors. For nonprofits, the average rose from $72,561 to $84,547, a 16.5 percent increase. For agencies, it rose from $121,012 to $154,548, a 27.7 percent increase. Sponsors’ average total compensation was nearly exactly the same as last year: $121,520, while for-profit properties’ rose 2.4 percent to $121,774.
Among property types, sports continued to pay the most, averaging total compensation of $128,207, followed by causes at $95,438. Arts organizations paid an average of $86,984; attractions, $81,724; festivals and fairs, $72,705; and government-owned properties $53,307.
For the most part, larger organizations pay more, whether it is properties with larger annual sponsorship revenues, sponsors with larger budgets or agencies with larger sponsorship billings.
Employees of organizations above the $5 million mark in any of those categories averaged total compensation of $168,896. Between $2.5 million and $5 million, the figure was $135,760. Between $1 million and $2.5 million it was $109,176. Between $500,000 and $1 million it was $78,007. Below $500,000 it was $75,539.
Among properties, personnel at those with sponsorship revenues under $1 million averaged $71,382 in total compensation; those between $1 million and $2.5 million averaged $101,114; and those above $2.5 million averaged $154,006.
Results derive from responses from 330 industry practitioners–48 percent nonprofit properties, 23 percent for-profit properties, 11 percent sponsors and 18 percent agencies.