Even though women have historically dominated the PR industry, their salaries generally haven't equaled what men earn. But executive recruiters say that rift is closing, and as the demand for strategic communicators grows, women may well indeed command the salaries their male counterparts earn.
As a wrap-up to 1997, PR NEWS contacted several executive recruiting firms to find out how healthy the job market is for PR/communications professionals today. And while all we spoke to reported that their businesses aren't lacking for clients, they also reported that the salary gap between men and women is narrowing.
"There is some disparity at the top, but generally we're finding that female PR professionals are earning about 90 cents on the dollar (three years ago it was 62 cents) when compared to what men earn," says Juli Ann Reynolds, managing director for Russell Reynolds Associates, New York. "And we believe that gap will continue to narrow."
To some, Reynolds' remark might seem like rhetoric and 90 cents on the dollar might seem a trifle placating, but consider trends in other industries and the worth of this figure is elevated.
Also, consider the statistics that have long come out of the Public Relations Society of America: its Web site promotes that 61 percent of its members are women, but a 1995/1996 salary survey conducted for PRSA by Simmons Market Research Bureau showed that despite the inroads women have made in communications, their salaries still didn't stack up. On the senior management level men earned a median salary of $85,817 and women earned a median salary of $61,525.
"PR salaries [earned by men versus women] are much closer today," says Jim Ward, president and CEO of The Ward Group, an executive recruiter firm (clients include Fidelity Investors in Boston and The Weber Group in Cambridge) in Woburn, Mass., that places about 80 professionals annually.
Of those placements, about 60 percent are for women, a wedge of the workforce the U.S. Census Bureau (based on 1995 data) has reported makes 71 cents on every dollar earned by a man overall (not in PR exclusively).
The View From the Top
When it comes to giving men and women similar salaries, PR may end up being a pioneer.
"There is far less discrimination against women in PR today," says John Fry, founder of The Fry Group, Inc., a New-York based executive recruiter firm that filled 62 positions last year. Typically, 70 percent of its PR/communication job candidates are women.
"Based on the clients I'm filling positions for, I am finding that women are making comparable salaries," agrees Smooch S. Reynolds, president of The Repovich-Reynolds Group, a decade-old executive search firm based in Pasadena. Execs filling slots for TRRG's clients earn between $75,000 and $300,000.
Keep Your Job Skills Up to Snuff
Lest you have too much else on your plate given it's the holidays, the New Year is an ideal time to analyze your career goals and find out how valuable your expertise will be in the future.
You should regularly track the nuances and changes in your profession, including what areas (investor relations, healthcare, labor relations) are driving the PR job market and what kinds of salaries are in the offing. And you should envision how you would view yourself if you were an executive recruiter: In short, would you want to lure you away? (PRSA, http://www.prsa.org; Juli Ann Reynolds, 617/523-1111, ext. 249; Smooch Reynolds, 626/585-9455; Jim Ward, 617/938-4000; John Fry, 212/557-0011 )