SALARY SURVEY
specialreport
inching toward
recovery
After dropping from 2008 to 2009, salaries
for distribution and logistics professionals
have started to creep up again, according
to DC VELOCITY’S annual survey.
DID THE RECESSION OF 2008–2009 TAKE A TOLL ON DISTRIBUTION AND LOGISTICS
professionals? The results of DC VELOCITY’S 2010 annual salary survey indicate that the
answer is yes. The median salary for the 1,010 readers who responded to this year’s poll was
$85,000—down about 5 percent from the pre-recession peaks of $89,000 in the 2008 survey and $90,000 in 2007.
But the news on the compensation front isn’t all grim. This year’s median salary is up
slightly from last year’s median of $83,000, suggesting that salaries may have bottomed out
and are now on the rise again.
Indeed, 41 percent of the respondents to the survey, which was conducted via an online
questionnaire in February and March, said their salaries had risen in the past 12 months,
while 39 percent said their salaries had held steady. When the results are broken down by
job title, a similar picture emerges: For the most part, salaries are comparable to or higher
than last year’s figures (see Exhibit 1). The one anomaly is the median salary for corporate
officers, which dropped 16 percent. However, this finding might reflect the small sample
size (33 respondents).
