Salaries for corporate communication executives - working in eight key metro areas -- tend to follow national compensation packages. With apologies to Willie Sutton, PR
salaries are on the high end in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco because that's where the money is. All three cities, as well as Atlanta, Chicago and Boston, are major hubs
for the PR business. The most solid gains were for a PR manager, based in Los Angeles, working in the b2b space (+15%) and a PR director, based in New York, working for a
corporate/financial firm (+19%). On the low end, a PR manager, based in Chicago and working in investor relations, had just a 3.8% increase in salary while a PR director in San
Francisco, working in the corporate/financial space, saw a 4.5% gain. Percentage gains were a lot healthier on the agency side in the key metro cities. For example, a senior
account executive, based in the nation's capital, whose clients include corporate/financial companies, saw a 21.4% increase in salary while a senior VP, based in the Bay Area, who
does investor relations, saw a 18% jump in salary in 2002.
Regardless of the discipline -- whether it's a PR manager working in the consumer space in Dallas or a Senior VP working in healthcare PR in Boston -- it's important to keep
other variables in mind when it comes to salaries. These include current base salary, title, specialty, size of previous company and length of service.
Geography plays a part, too, as the metro areas with the highest concentration of PR pros garner the handsomest salaries while PR people working in non-key metro areas get the
short end of the stick. Although the salaries vary widely, depending on the locale and the job, all categories are on the upswing. Again, the numbers are encouraging but they need
to be compared to percentage changes in 2002, when the entire economy was still hemorrhaging from the September 11 attacks.
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Corporate Communications Salaries 8 Key Metro Cities
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Title
|
Category
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City
|
Range ($000)
|
Percent Change
|
| Comms Specialist | Consumer | Washington, D.C. | 43-55 | 8.9% |
| Manager | Corporate/Financial | Dallas | 66-78 | 13.4% |
| Manager | B-to-B | Los Angeles | 84-100 | 15.0% |
| Manager | Investor Relations | Chicago | 74-88 | 3.8% |
| Director | Corporate/Financial | San Francisco | 105-125 | 4.5% |
| Director | Corporate/Financial | New York | 105-125 | 19.8% |
| Vice President | Consumer | Atlanta | 100-124 | 13.7% |
| Senior Vice President | Health/Medical/Pharm | Boston | 150-170 | 8.5% |
| Complete salary info available in The Official PR Salary & Bonus Report - 2003 Edition Source: Spring Associates Inc. |
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PR Agency Salaries 8 Key Metro Cities
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Title
|
Category
|
City
|
Range ($000)
|
Percent Change
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| Account Executive | B2B | Chicago | 45-53 | 11.4% |
| Senior Account Executive | Corporate/Financial | Washington, D.C. | 49-53 | 21.4% |
| Account Supervisor | Consumer | Atlanta | 50-60 | 12.2% |
| Account Supervisor | Consumer | Los Angeles | 65-78 | 11.7% |
| Vice President | B2B | New York | 90-114 | 10.3% |
| Senior Vice President | B2B | Dallas | 92-114 | 11.4% |
| Senior Vice President | Investor Relations | San Francisco | 115-128 | 18.0% |
| Executive Vice President | Corporate/Financial | Boston | 130-152 | 15.1% |
| Complete salary info available in The Official PR Salary & Bonus Report - 2003 Edition Source: Spring Associates Inc. |
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