Tag Archives: salaries

Women’s pay: Bill collector and baker among the best; most earn 81 cents

Posted on by
Reply

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’m looking at women’s pay.

Women on average earn 81.2 cents for every $1 men make in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That ratio has climbed on and off for years, yet by some estimates it could take decades before women reach parity.

Women working full-time earned $679 a week, while men took home $51 a week more – though the disparity grew to hundreds of dollars a week in some occupations.   Here’s five where women are underpaid compared to their male counterparts:

  1. Personal financial advisors only 58.4 percent
  2. Property and real estate managers  65.3 percent
  3. Insurance sales agents 66 percent
  4. Human resources managers 69.3 percent
  5. Lawyers 74.9 percent

Even in the most common occupation for women, elementary and middle school teachers, the 1.98 million women earn 85.7 percent of their male colleagues, according to the BLS. The gap is much less for high school and post-secondary teachers, however, in part because the ratio of men to women is less lopsided.

I won’t get into all the reasons for the pay gap here, in the interest of time and brevity, though clearly, discrimination, unintentional and deliberate, still plays a role.

Yet a few jobs pay women more. Here’s a look at five with a positive ratio to men’s weekly earnings:

  1. Dining room attendants, 111.1 percent
  2. Bill collectors, 109.5 percent
  3. Life and social science technicians, 102.4 percent
  4. Teacher’s assistant, 104.6 percent.
  5. Bakers, 104.0 percent

I can’t help but note that the jobs where women earn more than men are among the lower paying occupations while in big paycheck jobs, whether CEO or pharmacist or surgeon, men take home 15 to 25  percent more than women. One possible exception: Women who work part-time – usually 30 hours a week – make the same or slightly more than men. That’s 100 percent of men’s wages for shorter work weeks and mostly modest paying jobs.

Yes, women have much to celebrate and a strong need to support each other – and press for more and better salaries too.

Share

Raises are rising nicely this year and the top merit the most

Posted on by
1

After all my worry and strategizing about corporate buyouts, Borders’ bankruptcy and discrimination against unemployed job seekers, I’m thrilled to bring you some good news today:

Raises are back, and they’re bigger than expected – especially for top performers.

Workers “who far exceeded performance expectations” received merit increases of 4.0 percent last year, compared to 2.7 percent awarded to staffers overall, according to Towers Watson, a benefits consulting firm.

They may receive even more in their paychecks this year. Merit increases overall are predicted to reach 3.0 percent, the highest levels since before the financial crisis of 2008, Towers Watson reported this week.  That is ahead of salary increases forecasts by the Conference Board and others, based on surveys last spring and summer.

The 3 percent average raise is a promising reversal from the pay freezes or reductions, furlough days and more of the last  few years, when raises were as skimpy as some exotic dancers’ costumes. As the economy got sicker, many firms uncovered ways to skip raises, or pay their best a small merit increase, by denying the lowest ranked worker any raise. (That trend of giving those at or near the bottom nothing may continue, and definitely shows up in the Tower research.)

Companies definitely have pumped up pay-for-performance  for workers at almost all levels.  Only 11 percent of U.S. employers give cost-of-living increases, according to WorldatWork. a nonprofit human resources organization that focuses on employee rewards.

WorldatWork also has identified another intriguing trend: Raises vary based on geography. Top performers in San Jose, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Houston and Detroit were expected to receive raises of 4.0 percent or better, well above the national average of 3.7 percent. That’s according to WorldatWork’s survey last year of 2,497 HR members.

Even if you don’t live in one of those areas, you may find yourself in higher demand this year. Slightly more than half of the  381 large and mid-sized U.S. employers Towers Watson surveyed in late January say they’re having trouble finding “critical-skill” workers. One-fourth are worried about keeping their best staffers on the payroll.

No wonder they’re planning to offer more generous raises this year.


More information:

My Glassdoor.com post offers advice on building the case for a raise this year.

Turn a job offer into higher pay at your current employer by following advice from The Ladders.
Dig up details on salaries and benefits. My Washington Post piece shows how to set three salary numbers for yourself.

Share

$100 an hour jobs? Professors, engineers and directors may make it

Posted on by
1

The new $100 bills was unveiled by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, complete with its anti-counterfeiting stripes, hidden images and copper bell.

The debut of the Ben Franklin bill gives me an excuse to write about professions that pay $100 an hour – or more – to their top practitioners.  I’m not talking about people who make $100 an hour once or twice a year. I mean those who earn $100 an hour for just about every hour they work.

That means they make around $200,000 a year – more if they win a bonus or take on extra consulting gigs, less if they take a six-week leave to explore India with their mother or daughter.  Some 3.9 million Americans earned $200,000 to $1 million a year in adjusted gross income, according to the Internal Revenue Service,  counting individuals and many dual income earning families. That means almost 9 percent of all  households — or at least those who filed tax returns — are bringing in a C-note an hour (though that includes investment and other taxable income).

My lists of occupations comes straight from the government, as will those cool new $100 bills. These are drawn from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for May 2008, the most recent data available.

The first list is those professions that definitely have plenty of $100 an hour people, even though the job category’s average pay doesn’t approach that.

Definitely $100 and up jobs:

1. Surgeons,  average $207,000 or $99.41 an hour

2. Anesthesiologists,  $198,000

3. Orthodontists,   $195,000

4. Chief executives,  $160,000 or $77.13 an hour

5. Dentists,  $154,000

6. Natural sciences managers, $123,000 or $59.30 an hour

7. Lawyers, $124,000 or $53.17 an hour

The BLS also gives some details on people’s income if they’re in the 90th percentile of their occupation or if they work in a city where their skillsets are sought after. So engineering managers in San Jose earn more than their counterparts in any other city, while dentists in Anchorage get some of the highest paychecks.

Also on that list are a variety of other doctors – from obstetricians to internists to psychiatrists. Despite being in short supply for years, nurses don’t even come close – they average around $65,000 and the top 10 percent earn maybe $50 an hour or less.

My second list, also drawn from the BLS data, includes occupations where it seems very likely some people reap pay of $100 an hour, either for consulting or project work or where their tenure and value reaches its zenith. Besides the BLS data, I’m relying on my 20-plus years as a business writer or editor.

Here’s’ probably $100 an hour types,with their average income

1. Airline pilots, $119,700

2.  Securities broker / sales person  $92,000

3. Petroleum engineers  $119,000

4. Physicists  $106,000

5. Engineering managers, $121,000

6. Computer, information systems managers $119,000

7. Management consultants  N/A

9. Professors, law or medical $101,000 and $102,000

10. Producers and directors, $83,000

All the salary figures are average annual earnings, from the BLS. So while one producer earns $19,000 a year running a small town theater company part-time, another one earns $205,000 for some big New York troupe or movie production company.

So how can you bring up your earnings so those new $100 bills will show up more often in your wallet? That sounds like a good subject for another blog post sometime soon. Or maybe a series of posts. So if you have great ideas on adding to your earnings, please send them my way.

Meanwhile, check out the amazing BLS document that is the statistical source for this. It’s chock full of data on 800 occupations, including quite a few that don’t earn $100 a day and a handful that earn $100 an hour but only in some locations.  Dentists in Alaska, for example, earn the highest average wage – and average $97.30 an hour, or $203,000 a year.  Anesthesiologists in Maryland and Kentucky earn $103 an hour or more, and they earn still higher wages in New Jersey and Washington state, though the BLS tables don’t give specifics.

As for me, I’d be happy to earn $100 an hour for my writing -  and hope to achieve that some day and for more than a few days. Just don’t expect me to don a surgical gown or wear a power tie or move to Alaska to collect it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you want to see more on the new $100 bills, which debut to the public in February, check out the New York Times Bucks blog, or a video showing all the security details  and some music that would be right at home on the 4th of July. My prefered paper, The Washington Post , ran the Associated Press account on the new big bill.

Share

Pay gap: Admin pay depends on the title, education and industry

Posted on by
Reply

It could be title inflation or education’s advantage. Or executive privilege. Or more responsibilities.

Whatever the reasons, an executive assistant makes a lot more than a secretary – about 60 percent more last year, according to Compensation Data annual pay survey

As they celebrate Administrative Professionals Week, the secretary has little to celebrate on the wage front. She averages just $31,300 a year  – or about $602 a week – according to Compensation Data’s 2009 survey of 5,300 employers.

Administrative assistants fares a bit better, earning $35,700 on average, or $687 a week.

Better still to work as an executive assistant , who makes an average of $49,600, or $954 a week.

Of course, the executive assistant job generally requires a bachelor’s degree and at least three years experience as an admin, while many secretaries can get hired with a high school diploma and a good recommendation.

The pay gap between the three sisters of admin jobs has existed for years, since at least 2004, Compensation Data’s surveys show.

The federal government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook also acknowledges the wide variety of salaries, reflecting varied skill levels and responsibilities. It shows a $11,000 median pay difference between secretary and executive secretary and administrative assistant  (who are joined in one group in the Labor Department reports). That gap grew by $1,000 or more in recent years.

Secretaries and administrative assistants are still one of the largest occupations in the United States, with 4.3 million workers in 2008. Of that, 1.59 million serve in higher paying executive and administrative assistants jobs, an increase of more than 10 percent over three or so years.

The fastest growing administrative job through 2018 will be medical secretaries, which will add 125,000 jobs for a 27 percent gain. Some of the openings, the government report notes, will result from admins leaving their profession, or getting promoted to higher and better paying jobs.

The best paying admin jobs are found at music / recording companies, securities exchange or brokerage houses or the executive branch of the federal government. Their annual paycheck tops others by a $11,000 a year or more, or more than 30 percent, the government reported.

So if you’re taking your secretary or admin to lunch this week, use the time to discuss her career goals and ways to build her skills. Or give her a professional membership or some educational reimbursement instead of flowers, OfficeTeam suggests. (It has a downloadable report called 25 Ways to Recognize Your Staff .)

Just don’t call her a secretary in handing out an assignment, a gift – or a raise.

This posting was adapted and updated from a Washington Post Working from three years ago. I hold the copyright on this article and all my blog posts.

Share

Engineering a starting salary of $61K – yeah!

Posted on by
Reply

If you think all the salaries being offered to fresh young grads are rice-and-beans low, you haven’t talked to any chemical engineering majors.

Their starting pay for this year is $65,142, second highest in the National Association of Colleges and Employers just released list of majors with the best salaries. The top spot went to petroleum engineers, a scarce lot of barely 500 graduates in recent years. In a year when salary freezes and reductions were common, they will earn $3,000 more on average than last year.

In fact, engineers claim eight of the 10 highest salaries in NACE’s annual survey, and they’ve been near the top for a few years.

The top five this year are:

1.  Petroleum engineering  - $86,220

2. Chemical engineering  - $65,142

3. Mining / mineral engineering – $64,552

4.  Computer science  - $61,205

5. Computer engineering – $60,879

Others in the top 10 include electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering and information sciences; each will start at salaries above $53,000 on average.

“Many of the engineering disciplines benefit from an imbalance in the supply/demand ratio,” NACE executive director Marilyn Mackes said in a report on salaries last summer. That scarcity of candidates leads to higher pay.

B-school graduates salaries start around $45,000 to $49,000 this year, a small drop from last year.

NACE will give more entry level college grad salary details in April. The 2009 grads experienced a 1.2 percent drop in average salary, to $49,353.

This year’s average declined to  $48,351 based on NACE’s preliminary estimate. Many newcomers start their first job out of college at $30,000.  The average figure covers liberal arts majors, b-school and the techies too.

Share