PR executive salaries in both corporate and agency circles continue to rise in 2000, although the rate of growth has leveled off at a steady 6%, compared with last year's inflationary 10% increases,
largely fueled by maniacal growth in tech sectors. And while the labor shortage is maintaining a tourniquet effect on employers' efforts to snag top talent, the latest round of dotcom failures has at
least infused the job market with a new supply of hungry candidates.
These are among the key findings in the PR NEWS 2000 Annual Salary Survey, conducted by the executive search firm Marshall Consultants. Geographically, salaries in L.A. and San Francisco are
climbing at the fastest rate (8% -11%), thus narrowing what was once a sizable gap between compensation packages in Manhattan and Silicon Valley. But these increases aren't necessarily leaving West Coast
counselors with extra cash in their pockets, given the notoriously high cost of living in the Bay Area and in L.A.
"Housing shortages in places like San Francisco can scare away a lot of would-be West Coasters, and salary has to be the equalizer," observes James Wyckoff, senior VP and general manager at
Marshall.
Two Sides of the Coin
The number of agency vacancies up for grabs continues to outweigh openings on the client side. This is due, in part, to increased demand for agency services, which has resulted in a mushrooming of new
practice areas in fields such as investor relations, litigation communication, and subsets of healthcare and technology.
Nevertheless, corporate communications salaries continue to outpace agency salaries by a healthy margin. (The average corporate SVP pulls in a base salary of $203,000, while an agency SVP commands
around $153,000.) "A majority of candidates tell us they still prefer to explore corporate positions," says Larry Marshall, president and CEO of the eponymous search firm. Money isn't the only reason
for this bias.
Suburban corporate headquarters continue to be idealized as panaceas for burned-out agency veterans fleeing the grind of urban life. "People still perceive that a corporate job is going to be less
demanding than an agency in terms of hours and politics," says Wyckoff. This is a dangerous assumption, however, given that heightened M&A and IPO activity (and globalization) has catapulted more
than a few corporate PR departments into crisis mode.
Agencies, nevertheless, are stepping up efforts to sweeten their deals for prospective candidates, offering bolstered benefits packages, including dental care, optical coverage, extra vacation,
professional development programs, performance-based incentives and earlier inclusion in retirement and profit-sharing. Sign-on bonuses also are gaining popularity in both corporate and agency camps,
ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, but reaching as high as $10,000 in some cases, Wyckoff says. Stock options still have cachet, although many candidates have become wary of them, having been burned in
vaporware start-ups that never came to fruition.
Interestingly, while the majority of job-seekers aspire to land plum jobs on the client side, those rising from the ashes of failed dotcom ventures are more likely to pursue agency positions, having
become accustomed to a faster pace and more entrepreneurial environment, Wyckoff says.
Hot Spots
Not surprisingly, sectors such as high-tech and healthcare continue to top the hottest growth areas, both in terms of available jobs and salary ranges. And while investor relations salaries are
slightly more tempered, demand for IR professionals continues to grow in light of the influx of new investors into the marketplace.
What's certain is that industry-wide jockeying for Grade-A candidates shows no sign of becoming any less vicious. "With the demand for good people so high, candidates are increasingly doing what was
once inadvisable - quitting a job before they have another one lined up, in order to look full-time," says Brenda Burrows, VP of the consumer and technology practice at Marshall. This strategy, once
considered a major flub, has become a mainstream M.O. for at least 10% of today's top candidates.
Compensation benchmarks in this study represent base salaries for communications executives with at least 3-5 years' experience. As entry-level placements were not factored into this study, salary
averages may skew slightly higher than other PR industry surveys. For this study, Marshall Consultants culled its database of more than 10,000 job candidates for both agency and corporate positions.