Corporate communications: Salary analysis
| Level | Average range | Median | Average bonus | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managing director | £108,000 | - | £148,000 | £145,000 | 20% |
| Director | £75,000 | - | £116,000 | £96,500 | 20% |
| Associate director | £58,000 | - | £70,000 | £64,000 | 10% |
| Account director | £41,500 | - | £52,000 | £47,000 | 10% |
| Account manager | £29,000 | - | £38,000 | £33,000 | 10% |
| Account executive | £20,000 | - | £27,500 | £24,500 | 10% |
The view from here
2007 was a record year for our corporate communications team as corporate consultancies continued to expand and recruit. The number of briefs we handled doubled last year as a wide range of agencies looked to increase their resources in the wake of major client wins. Demand was strong from almost all corporate sectors and indeed from all sizes of agency, from international service consultancies and mid-sized agencies through to highly specialised outfits.
Most highly prized were candidates at account manager level, followed by account directors, associate directors, directors and account executives. Candidates to fill these new positions proved to be relatively thin on the ground - especially at account manager level - but, perhaps surprisingly, this extra demand did not feed through strongly to salaries which remained in broadly similar brackets to those we recorded in 2006.
Despite a candidate-driven market, and a number of consultancies significantly upping the salaries of existing staff in an effort to retain them, those with an overinflated view of their market worth generally got short shrift from consultancies. Exceptions to this rule were generally where candidates had proven rain-making skills or could provide specialist knowledge by moving into PR from another industry, such as the junior financial journalist who achieved a 30% pay rise on joining a corporate consultancy. Within corporate PR, financial services specialists continued to pay significantly above market rates (3% more at account executive level, 8% more at account manager/ account director level and 13% more at director level).
In the main, however, candidates on the move were content with relatively modest pay rises. At account manager level, an average 12% uplift was enough to persuade people to jump ship, as candidates were generally more interested in their longterm prospects and working with exciting clients than an immediate boost to their bank balances.