Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Labor Day: Salaries, Part I

This three-part Labor Day special report focuses on three salary surveys.

Part I examines the the 2007 AIGA|Aquent Salary Survey.

Part II examines the 2007 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey.

Part III examines the 2007 Redmond's (Microsoft) IT Salary Survey.

AIGA|Aquent Salary Survey

Data from nearly 5,000 design professionals were compiled earlier this year in what is believed to be the most comprehensive national compensation survey of its kind.

The data reflects the following:

  • 2006 wages/salary
  • 2006 total cash compensation*
* Total cash compensation includes not only wages and salary but other forms of cash compensation such as bonuses, profit sharing, incentives and partners’ profits.

Here are a few demographic highlights:

  • work in the for-profit sector (87%)
  • work in organizations smaller than 1000 employees (78%)
  • work as freelance or self-employed (solo designer) (17%)
  • work in the greater Boston area (229) (5%)
The following median salaries were reported in the greater Boston area:
  • entry level designer [ $36,000 ]
  • designer [ $47,500 ]
  • senior designer [ $65,000 ]
The following categories did not provide enough data points to offer statistically significant compensation results:
  • Web designer
  • Web developer
  • Web programmer

Beantown Web will explore these salaries in Part II of this Labor Day salaries series.

The Survey of Design Salaries website provides Definitions for 16 job categories along with a Salary Calculator for comparing compensation across job functions and geographical regions. The entire 44-page 2007 Survey of Design Salaries document (pdf) is available for download.

The survey is commissioned annually by AIGA | the professional association for design, with the support of Aquent, and in cooperation with Communication Arts magazine.

Design professionals can use the survey data to benchmark job opportunities as the post-summer job market shifts into full gear.

Additional Surveys

Labor Day: Salaries, Part II examines the 2007 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey.

Labor Day: Salaries, Part III examines the 2007 Redmond's (Microsoft) IT Salary Survey.