You mean they pay you, as well?
I’m sure we all turn up at work in the morning for the sheer love of our jobs, the exhilaration of working on proposals. Our first answer to the age-old debate of “If I won the lottery, I’d…” is always, “continue working on proposals, just like I do today.”
(Any new readers might by now be sensing that this blog is sometimes written just a little tongue in cheek!).
The on-going 2007 Proposal & Business Development community survey posed a question about salary level. Whilst the data’s not definitive, and there are other surveys out there that focus more exclusively on salaries, a population of well over 600 respondents gives some interesting perspectives.
(Shut up, Williams. They just want to know whether you’re going to give them data that’ll help them get a pay rise).
First, let’s break down the responses on salary ranges (excluding other benefits) by bands. The mean is just shy of $80k, but there’s a significant range as one might expect:
* 19% are earning under $50,000 per year
* 41% fall in the $50k – $75k bracket
* 24% earn $50k – $100k
* 11% climb into the $100k – $150k camp
* 5% claim to be on over $150k.
Next up – any significant variation by sector? A little, but not to as huge extent as some might have expected:
- Healthcare/Benefits Admin: $73k
- Finance: $74k
- Technology: $79k
And finally, what about salaries by role? Here goes, for some of the larger camps out there:
- Executives (Director, VP or above): $118k
- Supervisory management (including team leads): $97k
- Management (project, programme, data, content: $78k
- Writer/Editor: $61k
- Analysts, co-ordinators, technicians, specialists: $58k
- Database staff (admin, designer, manager): $54k .
How d’ya fare?! I can picture half of you shrugging your shoulders: “Hey, this data’s a good guide, but it doesn’t reflect the special features of my role.” And the other half – the ones who come in below the averages – will already be plotting to use the data to ask for a rise! I work on 10% commission for any pay rises that readers may negotiate using this data. Payment in fine wine is eminently acceptable
This article was written by Jon and filed under Musings. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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Hmmm, always good data. It will be of particular interest to assess years of experience with salaries…..I would guess that would make quite a difference. Or at least it should, IMO.
One thing to keep in mind about salary data: The U.S. economy is not geographically consistent, as my boss reminded me a few weeks back.
Housing costs, commuting times/costs, and other expenses vary greatly. I can still buy a wonderful home here in Iowa for under $150,ooo, but in California, a figure twice that amount often will buy something small and ratty. So a $50,000 salary in one part of the country could compare quite favorably with a $90,000 salary somewhere else.
Or, so I’m told.
Hi, Robin – I guess the correlation would perhaps be between years’ experience and seniority, and hence salary. I’ll have a dabble when I get back to the office to see if the data Barbara sent me shows anything meaningful on that front.
Kurt – interesting observation. As this is an international survey, the data’s probably even more variable between the US and other geographies (e.g. Asia), but my statistical training (many years ago) makes me wary of the population sizes, which aren’t really large enough to be confident in any conclusions. I did have a look at the data orted by U.S. state, but again by the time you cut a sample of 600-odd up 50-odd ways, the number of individuals in each area is a little low to be confident with any statistics. But if I ever move to the States, I’ll head for Iowa not California…