While salaries rose only modestly in 1998, there are signs they are increasing more significantly in 1999, according to a new survey from the corporate and marketing communications recruiting firm Marshall Consultants, and released exclusively for PR NEWS.
"Compensation levels last year rose by only four to six percent," says Larry Marshall, the firm's president and CEO. "But in certain hot functional and industry areas, increases were in the 10 percent range, with indications that more such rises will occur this year. Hot functional areas include investor relations and media relations. And in growing industries like healthcare and high technology, demand also continues to exceed supply and puts pressure on employers to lift salaries."
In conducting its third annual compensation review, the firm reviewed its database of some 15,000 candidates and tapped the expertise of recruiters in its New York and Los Angeles offices. Recruiters on both coasts reviewed compensation figures and made adjustments according to company size, industry, and location. "There's as much art as science in our report," says Hugh McCandless, head of the firm's New York office. For this reason, he suggests that the study will be most effective when considered in conjuction with other PR industry measures or wage and salary administrators.
"Confidence among executives at our client organizations was high again in 1998, and continues strong this year," McCandless says. The real income gains of 1999 have been achieved as compensation growth continues to outpace cost of living increases.
Premium Pay For Investor Relations People
"Compensation levels and increases are far from uniform," says Marjorie Silverman, vice president in charge of the Marshall Consultant's investor relations' practice. "I/R people now take home higher than average pay - perhaps 30% more," she says. Silverman attributes the overall gain more to stock options than to increases in base salaries. "Higher pay [for I/R pros] is due to demand exceeding supply, of course," she says, "but it also recognizes the extra knowledge that I/R people have had to acquire to do their jobs."
Similarly, industry niche expertise has contributed to compensation increases in the pharmaceutical and high-tech industries, says Brenda Burrows, vice president of Marshall Consultants' technology and lifestyle recruiting division, especially for those with media relations skills, she says. "While talent shortages in these fast-changing industries make income gains inevitable, other areas are soft by comparison. Industrial-based, business-to-business marketing public relations is one of these," she observes.
No Gender Gap
According to Kathleen DesRosiers, head of the firm's Los Angeles office, "Gender no longer makes a difference in hiring practices and compensation policies - certainly not in the large cities that are centers for communications." DesRosiers also predicts that "since there are more highly qualified women than men entering the field, it should follow that in the future, more top jobs will be held by women."
"Generalizations about pay by title are not reliable," she adds. "Even within the same industry, companies have different traditions and practices. And often it's not so much the industry that matters as it is a combination of factors, such as parity with similar corporate staff functions, including human resources, advertising and marketing."
Survey Criteria
The study defines large corporations as those having sales of $1 billion or more, and mid-sized companies as those with sales between $400 million and $1 billion. These benchmarks differ from last year's study, which drew the line between large and mid-sized corporations at the $2 billion mark. Smaller companies in this year's study continue to be defined as those with sales under $400 million.
On the agency side the study defines large PR agencies as those with fee income in excess of $5 million. Mid-sized PR firms are those with fee income of $1 million to $5 million; and small agencies are portrayed as those with fees under $1 million.
As a general rule, pay scales at larger companies are higher. But today's high-tech market is bucking that trend, observes DesRosiers. "An exception to the rule that larger pays more can be found in some of the small, fast-growth tech companies. They are competing with large companies for talent. And they'll pay top dollar."
(Marshall Consultants, 212/628-8400)
Career Watch: What Makes People Tech
Small, tech-based companies have a reputation for being innovative and unorthodox. Their PR pros are no exception. Consider the skinny on Dalin Clark, head of PR/marketing for the L.A.-based agency Genex Interactive:
Title: Marketing Director (exists only to appease insistent journalists)
Former Life: Agency staffer turned client, turned sports reporter, turned grad student (copywriting).
Attention Span: Changes jobs at Genex about every four months. "I was doing business development. Now I'm writing marketing copy and collateral."
Tenure: 2+ years at Genex. "A long time in interactive years."
Networking Haunts: American Institute of Graphic Arts events and the @d:tech trade show.
Job search strategy: "It's just like pitching stories to editors. I find work that I envy, call the people directly, and critique it."