Food Processing - July 2008 - (Page 21) n a climate of collapsing home sales, doubling fuel and food prices, layoffs and slashed salaries, onthe-job stress is climbing. Visibly. Job insecurity rose 10 percent in this, our second annual Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey, with more than 45 percent of workers worried how long they’ll have their current job. Nevertheless, job satisfaction inched up nearly 2.5 percentage points, even as the average food processing salary inched downward (to $95,226). Although those working more than 40 hours a week dipped slightly, so did those taking all the vacation time they’re entitled to. When we inaugurated our first Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey last year, we were overwhelmed by the response you gave. We had about the same amazing response this year: Nearly 2,000 processors answered our nosy request to learn what you do, how much you earn doing it and how well you like what you’re doing. Responses to what you and your colleagues make annually show a nice, gradual climb up the scale we provided into low six figures before the sharp drop-off at $201,000. In fact, 25 percent of you make between $100,000 and $200,000 a year. Precisely five make more than $501,000 (there were only two in this lofty group last year). I On the other end, last year’s below-$36,000 earners totaled just over 6.5 percent whereas this year the number went up to nearly 8.5 percent. e “average” food processing salary is a misnomer. Not only do salaries vary greatly by job category, but we reconfigured the predetermined salary levels in this year’s survey. We had too many respondents in the overly broad “$101,000-$500,000” category last year – 21 percent of all respondents, to be precise. We broke that category into four smaller ones, so precise comparisons to last year’s “average” salary are unfair. Actually, the largest single segment last year (24 percent) was in the $66,000-$85,000 category, while this year’s largest segment was the 25 percent in the $101,000-$200,000 category. As with our 2007 survey, the Corporate Management group is the best compensated. eir mean is $124,940 and their median was $100,000. ose in management fell predominantly in the 50-64 age range (43 percent) and also self-identify predominantly as Caucasian (89 percent, vs. last year’s 91 percent) and male (76 percent, vs. last year’s 73 percent). ose in the Marketing/Sales category are slightly younger, falling mostly in the 40-49 year age range (41 percent). Salarywise, their median is $93,000 and average is $103,672 – down significantly from last year’ $138,983 (we must have had a highly compensated group last year). Salaries by job title (Mean/Median) $65,238/$51,000 Other $124,940/$100,000 Management Purchasing $72,280/ $65,000 20% 19% 9% Marketing/ Sales $103,672/ $93,000 4% 27% 21% $88,677/$85,000 Plant Ops/ Engineering $101,307/$85,000 R&D/Product Development Who are you? Gender 65+ 2% Age <29 7% Female Male 68% 32% 30-39 19% 50-64 39% 40-49 34% FOODPROCESSING.COM JULY 2008 FOOD PROCESSING • 21 http://FOODPROCESSING.COM
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