DC Velocity - May 2009

specialreport

BY TOBY GOOLEY, MANAGING EDITOR

SALARY SURVEY

The results of DC VELOCITY’s

annual salary survey reflect

what’s happening in the

economy at large. But

the news is not all bad.

THE ECONOMY MAY BE IN FREEFALL, BUT logistics salaries appear to be holding their own … for the most part anyway. About one-third of the 1,148 logistics professionals who responded to our fourth annual salary survey in February said their total annual compensation had stayed the same in the previous 12 months. And more than half ( 53 percent) said their annual compensation had actually increased—better than you might expect considering the headlines of late.

Not everyone was so fortunate, though. About 14 percent of the respondents said they were making less than they did the previous year. That’s a significant jump compared to 2008’s survey, when only 3 percent of respondents said their pay had fallen during the past 12 months. This group most likely includes people who are unemployed, have taken a pay cut, or have taken a lower-paying position after losing their previous job. In fact, no matter how you looked at the data, median and average salaries were down slightly almost across the board.

Hard labor

Their paychecks may be smaller, but readers are working as hard as ever. Only 25 percent of those who took part in the salary survey said they worked 40 hours or less during the average week. Another 68 percent said they typically worked 46 to 60 hours a week (including

time spent working outside the office). A harried 7 percent can’t seem to tear themselves away, devoting more than 60 hours a week to their jobs. And it doesn’t seem to matter much what your title, industry, or location may be—with 87 percent of respondents reporting that their work hours had increased or stayed the same, almost everyone is putting their nose to the grindstone these days.

That’s partly because many people in this field have more responsibilities than they did in the past. Sixty-six percent of the survey respondents, in fact, reported that the number of functions they manage has increased over the past three years. Another 29 percent said their responsibilities had stayed the same, and 5 percent reported a decrease. The typical reader, moreover, is no longer responsible for a single function. Plenty of respondents said they carried responsibility for three or more of the six functions mentioned in the survey (see the sidebar). The greater the number of functions you oversee, of course, the more people to manage. No surprise, then, that 61 percent of the survey respondents said they had five or more direct reports.