Reponses are still coming in from our joint salary survey with the International Marine Purchasing Association. If you want to know how your pay measures up against other purchasing staff around the world and how you’re getting on in the great salary race, complete the survey and we’ll send you the full results.
In the first week of launching the survey there were 54 responses and while we will publish the full results later, here’s a taster of some of the early findings for Marine Trader’s readers to digest.
Results obtained so far show that the average pay rise in 2009 was 2.5% but the median was 1%, meaning half were below that figure and half above. In other words, a few individuals’ high pay reviews dragged up the average! According to purchasing staff themselves – of whom just 13% are former seafarers by the way – the average expected pay rise is 3.95% for this year.
A wide range of nationalities were represented in the survey from Russians to Jordanians, and with a strong showing from the UK. Bonuses also vary widely in the survey from zero to a handsome 200,000 euros in one case.
If you have yet to fill in the survey, please do so as we want to give you the most comprehensive data possible when we publish our results. It only takes two minutes (honestly!) and you can find the link at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GVDQNBZ. Don’t forget, you can respond anonymously if you wish.
Questions include country, age, nationality, sex, how many purchasing staff are there in your company, annual base salary and bonus figures. We’re also looking into company car allowances, housing allowances for expats and trying to find out how many graduates and former seafarers there are among our number.
The idea behind this project is to assist purchasing staff all over the world to benchmark their salaries. It will also allow boards and remuneration committees to see statistically valid salary benchmarks in order to hold themselves up to shareholder, employee and public scrutiny – proving that they are spending shareholders´ funds wisely, paying staff fairly and rewarding performance sensibly.
The information you provide will be held in the strictest confidence and none of your personal information will be made public. A report showing the findings of the survey will be sent to all participants for their own information and a summary will be uploaded on to the members-only area of the IMPA website with an overview in Marine Trader.
Compensation and benefits benchmarking is something that other industries take for granted but it´s something the shipping industry has only got to grips with in recent years.
