DC Velocity - May 2015

28 DC VELOCITY MAY 2015 www.dcvelocity.com specialreport BY BEN AMES, SENIOR EDITOR

SALARY SURVEY

WITH A ROARING STOCK MARKET, CHEAP GAS, AND SOLID JOB CREATION NUMBERS, the U.S. economy has enough forward momentum to coast over the occasional rough spot—such as weak consumer spending during a snowbound February—a Bloomberg survey shows.

Likewise, the supply chain profession has seen vigorous job growth in the past year despite big league challenges like a West Coast port work slowdown and concerns about how to fund repairs to aging roads and bridges, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now, DCV readers are showing similar optimism with their enthusiastic response to the magazine’s latest salary survey. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with their jobs, citing the chance to solve problems and work with experienced colleagues. And 91 percent said they would recommend the logistics field to a young person entering the job market.

As for how these readers are compensated for their labors, respondents to our 2015 salary survey earned $112,850 on average, which represents a 5-percent drop from the $119,538 they reported last year. Likewise, the median, which is the midpoint in the list of all salaries reported, fell 8 percent to $94,000.

That’s a stumble from the $102,000 mark set in 2014 but still above the

$90,000 median in our 2013 survey, and far above the meager $85,000

median pay reported during the fiscal crisis of 2009.

Despite the overall drop, well over two-thirds (68 percent) of the 294 qualified respondents said their annual compensation increased last year. In terms of size, those raises remained flat at just under

6 percent on average, slightly below the previous year’s number.

Meanwhile, about one-fourth ( 26 percent) said their salaries had stayed the same. Just 6 percent said they made less money in 2014 than they did the year before, although their sizeable cuts weighed down the overall average.

JOB PROSPECTS LOOK GOOD

Despite the slump in salaries, context shows there is plenty of good news in these numbers. Readers of this magazine earn fatter salaries than the national rate for jobs in the field, government figures show. With a median salary of $94,000,