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Nearly 40% of PR professionals did not receive a salary increase last year, according PR News' just-released 2012 Salary Survey. This represents a year-to-year increase in the number PR pros who did not see a salary boost. In the 2012 Salary Survey, 37.4% of respondents didn’t receive a raise, compared with 29.9% in PR News' 2011 Salary Survey (see chart for details).
Yet even with the dearth of pay increases, PR pros are generally upbeat about their careers, with 86.9% of survey respondents saying they are moderately to very satisfied with their positions.
PR News' Salary Survey, which collected compensation and benefits insights from some 2,200 PR practitioners in North America earlier this year, breaks out the results by region; by agency, corporate, nonprofit/association/NGO categories; and by job title—from executive VP to associate. Compensation data includes base and total salaries, as well as salary increases in 2011.
Other study insights include “soft” benefits received—such as flexible schedules, telecommuting and volunteer programs—and professional development opportunities.
The report also features insights from established PR leaders such as Helene Solomon, co-founder and CEO of Solomon McCown & Co., a Boston-based national strategic communications agency. Writing about the importance of team building, Solomon says the economic downturn presents agencies and in-house PR teams with an opportunity to keep a competitive edge and prepare for the future by focusing on staff development. Solomon’s credo: “Invest in our people, and we will succeed.”
One can only hope that this credo will be taken literally in the months and years ahead and that the trend in 0% salary boosts will be reversed.
PR News' 2012 Salary Survey is available for download for all premium PR News subscribers at the Subscriber Resource Center. Non-subscribers can order copies of the Salary Survey at prnewsonline.com/store/67. For more information call 888-707-5814 or e-mail [email protected].
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