EXHIBITOR Media Group has announced that exhibit and event professionals’ average base salaries increased 7.9 percent since 2011, marking the second largest year-to-year uptick in the 26-year history of the survey; bested only by an increase of more than 8 percent in 2006.
“The results of the Salary Survey are a mixed bag of equally mixed messages,” commented Travis Stanton, editor of EXHIBITOR magazine. “The increase in average base salaries is good news, but bonuses and additional compensation have taken a nose dive, leaving average total compensation four percent below 2011 figures. All told, when you combine this year’s average base salary with the average additional-compensation figure, you find that respondents are taking home less, on average, than they did in 2011.”
Surprisingly, both job satisfaction and the percentage of face-to-face marketing professionals who feel fairly compensated is up, compared to 2011, despite that shortfall. Plus, it appears that recessionary layoffs are a thing of the past. Sixty-seven percent of respondents say their department has stayed the same size since 2011, while another nineteen percent reported growth.
