how much money do you make?

by Alison Green on April 11, 2023

It’s hard to get real-world information about what jobs pay. Online salary websites are often inaccurate, and people can get weird when you ask them directly.

So to take some of the mystery out of salaries, it’s the annual Ask a Manager salary survey.

Fill out the form below to anonymously share your salary and other relevant info. (Do not leave your info in the comments section! If you can’t see the survey questions, try this link instead.)

When you’re done, you can view all the responses in a sortable spreadsheet.

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{ 306 comments }

{ 306 comments… read them below }

  1. Generic Username*

    I get the feeling I must be one of the lowest paid AAM readers, but still looking forward to going through the figures!

    1. rayray*

      I remember thinking the same the last time this was done, but I went through the spreadsheet later and filtered through people who live in the same state as me and I was surprised that I was actually around average. Wages are low here compared to COL.

      1. Lea*

        I’m always wondering how I compare to my friends in other types of jobs, so very interested in results!

      2. NorthOfTheWall*

        It feels STRANGE to realize that I’m moving into the 21-30 years of experience group…..I don’t feel that old!

          1. Daisy*

            I wear a lot of hats at the small company I work for so it’s hard to decide my job title. My business card doesn’t even have a title! I’d say my biggest function is bookkeeper just because it takes most of my time. however I’m also property manager. assistant to the owner. sales rep. payroll person. it’s hard to decide if I’m making the right salary!

            1. LJ*

              Another way you can think of is “what is the most someone will pay me right now”? Based on your resume, what is the highest paying position you can get?

              This may or may not require actually interviewing to get some answers, but when you do, you’ll know where you stand and make decisions accordingly

            2. I am Emily's failing memory*

              I’d consider that equivalent to maybe something like Operations Director.

      3. yala*

        iirc, last year I was definitely at the low end of the scale, especially for the number of years I’ve been here.

        I don’t think state employees can ask for a raise tho…

      1. Myrin*

        They probably made a punctuation error so that there’s now a comically low number in that column. Ask me how I know. *facepalm*

    3. RussianInTexas*

      I was one of the lowest paid last year, according to the spreadsheet, and probably will be this year again.
      I need to get out of this customer service crap.

      2. The Real Fran Fine*

        Try to transition into a customer success role somewhere – from the spreadsheet, it appears most of them make in the 6 figure range and not all have decades of experience either.

      3. Tea Pot Painter*

        I’ve always been in the top 3rd and I also work in customer service. The trick is tech makes the big difference.

    5. Reluctant Mezzo*

      And the ones who are paid very badly are likely to be too ashamed to answer, though I hope not.

    6. Honeylemon*

      I may not be *the lowest*, but I’ll probably be in the bottom 10% if I had to guess. I’m a teacher making $25k/year. Which is slightly below average for where I live, but none of us are paid well here. Which is hard considering that the average cost of a house here is approaching $500k.

  2. Sociology Rocks!*

    May I suggest editing the gender section to be able to select multiple options like man and nonbinary? And separating prefer not to say, and other, which could then be fill in the blank. Also being able to select multiple industries would be handy, since I work for a university, but for a federally funded research project, which does global public health work in other countries. So industry feels like I should pick health and government work

    1. Web Crawler*

      +1 to being able to select multiple genders. I’m both a man and non-binary.

      (I was hired as a woman though, but I don’t expect the survey to cover that level of nuance.)

    3. Catwhisperer*

      You can select multiple options for all the questions with square boxes in the answer section, even though it’s not explicitly noted in the question description.

      1. Been There*

        Not true; the job field option only allowed me to select one, even though my job crossed multiple categories. :/

          1. Just here for the scripts*

            Ditto. Check boxes should allow multiple answers but when you do it for your field of work it kicks back an error message saying that you’re limited to a single answer—in which case the radio button should have been chosen, not the check box

      2. Web Crawler*

        Awesome! It wasn’t like that earlier. (I tried clicking multiple options, and they were circles instead of squares.)

        Thank you Alison!

    4. Engineer*

      Work industry and functional industry are separate questions, which may help you? Your work industry would academic/education, but your functional area is public health.

    5. Nina*

      I write a lot of this kind of form – round checkboxes pretty universally mean you can only select one, square checkboxes mean you can select as many as you want (or up to a limit set by the form writer).

    1. rayray*

      +1000

      Executive/Admin/Personal Assistant jobs have to be among the least appreciated and undervalued out there. Speaking from experience. Besides the pay, just the general attitudes and assumptions people have about your job and how horribly many of these people in these positions are treated.

      1. Prospect Gone Bad*

        That’s because many (though certainly not all) are low skilled (which doesn’t mean no skill, but means the skills required are generic enough that you get 100 good resumes for every opening, 400 bad ones) and don’t require rare technical skills, hence lower barrier to entry, and they are used as stepping stones in careers. This isn’t inherently bad, we need jobs like this.

        I often see your sentiment here, but you have to realize that there are many Assistant types like at my current and past job that do really generic tasks like mailings, going to UPS, scanning documents, arranging travel, basic data entry. Yes, people should be treated with respect, but that doesn’t mean they should get paid the same as someone who spent years developing hard technical skills

        1. Chick (on phone)*

          Low skilled employees can show up on the business side too, believe me. It’s not a coincidence that soft skills are undervalued & are primarily associated with pink collar jobs— and that those jobs are paid lower under the assumption that the people filling them are inherently less skilled/valuable than a business/tech employee.

          As someone who can see how bad it goes when a technical person is….challenged, soft skill wise…..they’re just as valuable, and should be paid accordingly.

          1. Prospect Gone Bad*

            But it’s not an “assumption.” Many of us hire people. I can have a technical role where it takes me a couple of months to find someone who can actually do it, in contrast admin roles are easier to fill. It’s not an insult to admins. You don’t need to pretend the role is the same as a doctor or a great coder in order for you to respect the person. I see this idea all over the internet recently but I don’t get what the larger picture or goal is or why it’s wrong to give more money and respect to employees who bring in business or have rarer technical skills. I also see references to “other business items” that admins do, and I get that, but all jobs have those sort of niche tasks.

            1. FormerBurgerFlipper*

              For what it’s worth, jobs don’t have to require niche skills in order to be difficult or demanding, and juggling the often hectic requirements of an admin job IS a skill and a very important one at that.
              Of course it’s fair to say that assistant jobs aren’t on the level of specialized as a doctor or full stack developer (few are!). But it isn’t useful to give this reply when assistants say they are undervalued and underappreciated. Saying they’re just stepping stone jobs is the same argument people make when they say food service jobs aren’t worth paying more. No assistant is saying to pay them more than a neurosurgeon, they’re just saying they deserve to be paid and appreciated more, and that’s all you have to agree with.

              2. Chick (on phone)*

                Not to mention…I know an admin isn’t on the same level as a doctor. I don’t think there is any straw man who really believes that.

                1. Admins Aren't Garbage*

                  I agree with you, we know who and what we are and are not confused about the difference.

                  But I suspect that people who believe admins are low-skilled employees with little specialized ability also believe that we are not intelligent enough to understand that.

            2. Frickityfrack*

              “I don’t get what the larger picture or goal is or why it’s wrong to give more…respect to employees who bring in business or have rarer technical skills.”

              First of all, if you don’t get why it’s wrong to base your respect of an employee on the type of work they do, I’m not sure anyone can explain the issues admins face in a way you’ll understand. Sure, pay more for niche skills, that’s how it works, but underpaying and/or being less respectful of admins because you think those are only supposed to be “stepping stones” to bigger and better things is really crappy. Plenty of us are happy with this kind of work and we excel at it in a way a lot of higher paid people with super special skills would not. Maybe I don’t know any programming languages, but I make people so happy to be in a government office doing paperwork that they recommend it to their friends, and that’s not nothing.

        2. Gemstones*

          I dunno. Look at how many people struggle with basic things that are basically normal/taken for granted in admin things. We had commenters saying that getting a big-screen TV in the mail from their work would stymie them because it would be too overwhelming to deal with; another commenter a week or two ago had issues with sorting junk mail/mailing checks. I get that these aren’t super-hard skills, but I guess it’s all relative, isn’t it?

          1. Caramel & Cheddar*

            I’m a former admin and have watched our admin prowess slowly decrease over the years at my org, through people leaving and not re-hiring the roles or hiring people without very good admin skills. It’s very noticeable, absolutely a skill, a lot of people who think it’s not tend to overestimate how good their own admin skills are.

          2. WantonSeedStitch*

            Not to mention handling the schedules, idiosyncrasies, and often egos of high-powered management, much of the time. I did admin work in a small company for three years, reporting directly to the president (though I wasn’t an executive assistant). I was terrible at it. I was put on a PIP. I am now in a much more specialized role with a more specialized skillset required, and I am very good at it. But I was NOT good at the skillset required to be an admin.

        3. NeutralJanet*

          It’s funny, I got more or less shoved into taking on some admin work at one job and I learned that I am not good at it! I am good at data entry and at writing emails, and I could get by at the other aspects of the job, but I am definitely better at jobs that require my set of hard skills than at admin work.

        4. Oh NO.*

          You are gonna need surgery to remove that foot you so firmly shoved down your throat with that gross take. It’s not just your prospects that have gone bad here.

      2. Admins Aren't Garbage*

        As you can see, many people even on this site have a pretty dim view of support staff. I truly resent routinely seeing my chosen career labeled “low skill”, “not valuable”, “stepping-stone”.

        1. Analytical Tree Hugger*

          As you can see, many people even on this site have a pretty dim view of support staff.

          Point of clarification: Are you referring to this comment thread? Or a general sense?

          I ask because I only see one commenter expressing this sentiment in this post (and many commenters expressing the opposite).

          1. The Real Fran Fine*

            Yeah, this site is pretty pro-admin generally, or at least it was – admittedly, I don’t read here much anymore due to work commitments.

    2. Unwilling ASSistant*

      When I took my current ad-asst job at a global corporation boasting big profits back in 2021, I thought, “At least I’m probably getting paid way more than other people doing this job elsewhere?”

      Then I began looking at pay surveys, on this site and elsewhere, and realized that compared to others at my experience level in my position, I am getting royally screwed. Guess I know where the company’s profits are coming from. These surveys are so valuable.

      1. Unwilling ASSistant*

        Annnnnnnnnnd looking at the first 24 hours of responses, I am yet again on track to be the lowest-paid person in my position on the survey. D: Despite working at a large, extremely wealthy company and living in a much higher COL area than most of the other respondents so far. Literally every other person on the survey in my very common category lists pay with a first digit that is higher than mine. Thank f*ck I am quitting this awful place in a few weeks.

    3. Firecat*

      I just wish Assistants were still a thing. Everywhere I’ve worked for the last 7 years has taken the approach that only executives get an assistant, usually split between 3 or more, and they have been eliminated everywhere else. It’s meant a lot of wasted time for subpar results in my experience.

      1. Helewise*

        And I have to wonder how much money it really saves. Is it really worth it to have highly-compensated employees doing non-specialized tasks?

        1. Chick (on phone)*

          In my experience the high turnover than comes with that kind of jobs (one assistant for more than one person) leads to good candidates burning out faster, IE money spent more often constantly hiring. It’s absolutely more cost efficient to hire someone highly skilled & keep them around.

          2. Another Admin*

            Absolutely! I am currently supporting 2 VPs and the 6 directors under them, and I am STRUGGLING! I really don’t want to leave this place yet but it sure is getting harder to get out of bed in the morning some days.

          3. Unwilling ASSistant*

            Yuuuuuuup. Due to disorganization and dysfunction, I am the go-to for a company of over 500 people. There are technically department assistants, but I’m the first person everyone encounters when they’re looking for help, so I’m the first point of contact (and the other assistants are frequently already occupied due to also being overworked). I hit a stage of burnout many months ago that is now affecting my health and am quitting after my doctor told me if I didn’t get out soon, the damage would become permanent.

            Meanwhile, if the company would just hire more general assistants, they wouldn’t keep having to spend even more time, money, and other resources hiring and training new people who are just going to burn out and quit in no time. I’ve only been here seventeen months, and I’ve outlasted all but one of the last six people to work this so-called “easy” job. The one who lasted longer made it to twenty-four months, and only stuck it out because she was taking over a better (and non-assistant) position in the company when the person in that position retired at the end of those two years.

      2. Shandra*

        @Firecat: I had a commenter on another website inform me that only executives have admin assistants anymore, and if my then-employer still had them for others then it was out of step with the times.

        1. Chick (on phone)*

          I work for one of the big 3 and EVERYONE has an admin. Whoever told you that is wrong, lol.

        2. LilPinkSock*

          Huh? My manager isn’t an executive. Guess my organization, at the forefront of research in our industry, is wildly out of step. (My kingdom for an eye-roll emoji here)

      3. Gemstone*

        I’m the admin assistant for my office, I keep the email inboxes organised, file invoices, and keep available to assist with any task that anyone else needs help with. I’m struggling right now due to home stuff, but I do like being an Everyman kind of person.

    5. Anonymous 75*

      That’s been the case for a while. People seem to confuse having a skill as only a specific, trained, quantifiable training when in fact it can be many things, one of which is managing and influencing people you work with to maintain an orderly and productive worksite and good assistants can be masters at that with no degree to earn.

    6. Irish Teacher*

      As a teacher, I have to say that one of my colleagues recently referred to our late school secretary as “the best principal we never had”. And while I don’t know about admin roles in general, we have having huge trouble replacing her. She died last January and I’m just hoping we’ll have a replacement after the Easter holidays because a school’s secretary really is a pivotal person.

      Though honestly, I’m not surprised we’re having trouble replacing her, given how low the pay is. The school secretary is the first person in in the mornings and one of the last to leave in the evenings. They are there in the holidays when we are all off and even during the covid lockdown, I messaged at one point to ask if I could call in to collect some of my stuff (the first lockdown was initially announced for two weeks so I didn’t take much home) and she was there, while the rest of us were safely working from home. And the pay is far lower than that of a teacher.

      I don’t know much about corporate roles but I would imagine it is much the same. So in short, I agree that those roles are greatly undervalued and I have no idea why (although I don’t doubt gender plays a part!)

      1. Reluctant Mezzo*

        Oh heavens yes! My husband’s school had a vice-principal who regularly emptied the candy jar all himself, while my husband was careful to contribute to it.

        Guess whose requests got done faster.

  4. McFizzle*

    I had to laugh at “other / it’s complicated” as an option. Reminds me of a dating site, though I think that was for remote work.

      1. Environmental Compliance*

        Same. I travel quite a bit for work, can work from home as often as I want to, end up in the office quite a bit now though because we’re still backfilling my old role.

        I just put hybrid as that’s the intent of my current role. It would be interesting to include metrics on % travel expectation.

    3. WantonSeedStitch*

      I probably should have picked that: I go into the office a handful of times a year. But I picked “fully remote” because I don’t have to go into the office regularly, like most people who would say “hybrid.”

      1. Bit o' Brit*

        I was tempted to pick it. I’m meant to go into the office one day a week, but due to a combination of factors have been ignoring that requirement. I went with hybrid ultimately because that’s what’s in my contract, even if I haven’t really been following it.

  5. Catwhisperer*

    This doc has been so helpful to me over the years, especially when it came time for me to make a career change a few years back. Thanks for putting it together, Alison.

    2. The Real Fran Fine*

      It really has. I just wish the survey would be posted at the end of April because, selfishly, that’s when my company announces our yearly increases. I love filling out this form to try to help others gauge where they should be, but by the time I do, a week or so later the data points change, and then my answers are no longer valid.

    3. Raia*

      Agreed, this survey was a huge factor in me deciding what industry I’d go into, and what jobs I could be paid to be taught. Much more fun to be paid and learn, than pay to learn.

      1. kristinyc*

        Sure! I’ll wait a few days as result pour in.

        I was thinking about just doing some by industry, location, etc, with filters for gender/years of experience maybe?

        How would other people like to see this data grouped?

        1. ecnaseener*

          I’d definitely be curious to see how the numbers shake out with the value of education, particularly graduate degrees — how old / how many years of experience in your field does it take for a masters or PhD to consistently be earning more than a bachelors, etc. (Idk if anyone’s done that on previous years’ surveys)

        2. Nina*

          Seconding I’d like to see grouping by highest educational level! trying to decide whether it’s worth doing a PhD lol.

          1. Survey Analysis*

            Median salary based on education, with number/% of responses:
            -professional $127k 708 5.5%
            -phd $103k 765 6%
            -masters $87k 4357 34%
            -college $85k 5842 46%
            -some $70k 869 6.8%
            -high school $60k 170 1.3%
            So getting a PhD gives a notable salary bump over a master’s or bachelor’s.

          1. V*

            As I also recommended to kristinyc, this data is perfect to play around with in Power BI. Doesn’t really take anything more than basic Excel knowledge to create graphs and visuals for this kind of data.

            Played around with it a bit and quick stats on 11k entries gives 77% Female responses, 83% USA, 75% between 25 and 44 (2 are under 18). Of the respondenses 45% is College Educated, 35% with a Master’s. 6% PHD.

            For industry, 12% works in Education, 10% in Tech, 9% in nonprofits, 8% in health care, 8% in Public Sector, 5% in Engineering

            Top ten countries by average salary converted to USD (with at least 3 entries);
            Switzerland (100k)
            United States (99k)
            Singapore (89k)
            Australia (77k)
            Luxembourg (76k)
            Ireland (75k)
            Finland (74k)
            Norway (73k)
            Germany (73k)

            It’s actually more work to write this out from the graphs.

          2. trilusion*

            I would LOVE to see some statistics in an own post, or some diagrams from excel or power bi, e.g.
            – rankings over industries / countries / gender etc.
            – since you have been doing this for a few years, how was the progress, and do the numbers correspond to official statistics?
            – any interesting or unexpected data that you stumbled upon
            – etc.

    3. V*

      Strongly recommend you take a look at Power BI. It’s so much more powerful and perfect for playing around with data like this and looking for patterns.

      I’ll be doing the same later.

  7. Awlbiste*

    I think the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums option is new this year? Thanks for adding that one.

    1. Rachel morgan*

      It’s really good seeing libraries separate in there! My state (Michigan) has a state aid report for libraries where salaries etc are reported yearly, but it’s also really nice to see other states together as well.

    2. Just Another Public Librarian*

      I’m pretty sure it is and was also coming to thank Alison for adding it!

  8. ItIsWhatItIs*

    I always answer this with my husband’s info because I think it’s a lot more valuable.

      1. jj*

        I think they are saying that whatever it is their husband does for work is a data point they think more people will benefit from knowing? Perhaps due to his industry or some such

        1. Caramel & Cheddar*

          Alison has also said that she gets way more women than men filling out the survey, so it’s helpful to have more data points from men so that’s easier to see where there might be wage gaps.

          1. rumbakalao*

            I wonder if that’s because fewer men read the site, or because more men don’t like to share how much they make, or some combination of both

            1. WantonSeedStitch*

              I’ve seen many more commenters self-describe as female than as male here. I believe the readership does skew female.

              1. Sharp-dressed Boston Terrier*

                Can vouch. Out of the 20+ respondents from my country, only 5 (myself included) identify as male.

      2. ItIsWhatItIs*

        Other people had the right idea. I answer with my husband’s info because Alison mentioned there’s always way less data and I’m independently employed in multiple areas so I don’t think my data is particularly useful. (pet care, artist, seasonal admin etc). I didn’t think the statement was particularly confusing though.

      1. new year, new name*

        I just answered it twice, for myself! Once for my full-time day job and once for my part-time side job.

    3. Nela*

      I just forwarded it to my partner to answer (though he’s not an AAM reader), since I’m a freelancer so I technically don’t have a salary.

  9. MissGirl*

    It might be interesting to add company location with the increase of remote work. My company is located in a HCOL state but I live in the median. They don’t adjust salary for regions.

    1. Here for the updates.*

      I was thinking that too. I “work” in NYC but I live in another state and I’m formally attached to yet another office for tax purposes (NY is hard on taxing remote workers).

    2. Analyst*

      Yep, I live in a medium cost of living part of Florida but work remotely for a company that’s in Boston. I would be making a lot less if I worked for somewhere local.

    3. Me--Moving Sucks!*

      Mine has multiple offices and pays by location. So I’m in City1 making $3, but as soon as I move to City2, I’ll be making $5. Unfortunately, the state tax will also be higher.

      (amounts are relative, lol)

    4. BlueWolf*

      To be honest, I put the city/state of our office even though I’m fully remote. If I put the city/state where I live it could potentially be somewhat identifiable. Also, I live in a suburb just outside the city so it falls within the same metro area and would still be applicable for comparing salaries by location.

    5. VLookupsAreMyLife*

      same – I listed our corporate location in a high COL state because we don’t have geo-specific salary bands & I live in a low COL state.

  10. Avril Ludgateaux*

    I want to participate in this every time it comes around, but I don’t feel comfortable having to associate it with my google account. I suppose I can create a burner account, but it’s too much work.

    Always a valuable data set, though!

      1. Avril Ludgateaux*

        Oh, I must have misunderstood the “*Required” under the sign-in box.

        Excellent, never mind!

      2. Ace in the Hole*

        For anonymity reasons, would you consider making “City” optional next time? I’m in a small enough city that I could be identified from just my job title and location… I imagine I’m not the only one.

        1. Frickityfrack*

          You’re not – I put the metro area I work in instead of the specific city, because I’m the only one in my city that does my job.

        2. Bit o' Brit*

          I think renaming it to be something more vague like “City/Region” would be better – salaries can vary a lot by region and for those answers without a US state it’s valuable to enforce some hint of where the job is.

          1. Reader of lotsathings*

            I was a little confused what to put sonce I’m a telecommuter now, but ended up putting the city I fall under living in…

          2. Ace in the Hole*

            Yes, that would help. For example, the fact that I work in a rural region of my state is far more relevant than the specific town.

        3. Grith*

          I just entered “Small Town” in place of City, because certainly round here the fact I’m not in a big city is part of why CoL is lower than it could be.

          But yes, I second the suggestion to change it to City/Region – that would have prompted a different answer for me, and in hindsight, probably one that’s even more relevant to costs and salaries.

    2. ThatGirl*

      I don’t think there’s a way for Alison or anyone else looking at the survey to see your Gmail account info. Google might (??) store that somewhere but let’s face it, google already knows everything about you.

      1. SarahKay*

        I once had a friend say to her computer “Oh, google, it’s so sweet of you to pretend you don’t know where I live” which I reckon is pretty much spot on.

    3. Avril Ludgateaux*

      Related: I recently found out that somebody with my same job title, also in the public sector, in a neighboring city (we are technically within that city’s greater metro area) makes *3x what I make*. For the same title. She may have been a little older than I am, but even with the experience and location differential, it wouldn’t explain how she makes 300% of what I do – if I were fairly paid.

      Suffice it to say, I knew I was underpaid, but I did not know I was THAT underpaid. Salary transparency is so important.

      1. Unwilling ASSistant*

        Suffice it to say, I knew I was underpaid, but I did not know I was THAT underpaid. Salary transparency is so important.

        Same, and YES.

  11. AcunaMatata*

    Would love to have the “PhD” option expanded to a more inclusive “Doctorate.” I work in education and there are many types of academic doctorates (EdD, DFA, etc.) that are not professional degrees and do require dissertations.

    1. Jelizabug*

      Along the same lines, but in the other direction… I have an Associates, but I wasn’t sure whether to mark it as “some college” or “a college degree.” Since I generally think of college degree as a Bachelor’s, I just put “some college.”

      1. General von Klinkerhoffen*

        Similarly, my degree is called a Masters but isn’t exactly equivalent (it’s an undergrad degree not postgrad). Best guesses are best guesses.

      2. Laika*

        Yeah, I think the distinction between “college” and “university” are different depending where you live. Where I am, a college/institute will typially award diplomas, whereas a university will typically award degrees (+ diplomas), which makes the phase “college degree” read as sort of anachronistic!

        I interpreted it as “post secondary education”. So if you’ve successfully completed the program and earned the parchment, that’s not some, that’s the whole shebang :)

      1. The Cosmic Avenger*

        Our raises technically went into effect April 1, but I won’t see the increase until the 15th at the end of the pay period, so I’m going to fill this out at the end of the week once I know exactly what my new salary is. (Not that it makes much difference, but this data will be used for a while, so I figured my next year’s salary would be the most appropriate measure going forward.)

        Alison, are you closing the survey after a certain date?

          1. The Real Fran Fine*

            This is good to know. I’ll wait until then to fill this out since my yearly raise won’t be announced until a week before the end of April.

  13. Anon. Scientist*

    I’m in a small state in a tiny industry. I know almost all of the people in my position in this state personally. Any chance we can get a region option?

    1. Wordnerd*

      Seconding – my job title plus my city pretty much doxxes me if anyone else from my university stumbled upon this.

      1. Nina*

        Oh same, but my job title has a mad-specific part that’s only really used in my company, and a generic part that could apply to any of (literally) a thousand people in my city, so I redacted the specific part.

      1. Wordnerd*

        Ok, thank you! I’m a rule follower and felt weird not answering the question “correctly”!

        1. Lisa B*

          I did not realize this was an option, YAY! I never fill it out for the same reason – there is only one person at my title in a 300 mile radius.

      2. Anonymous for obvious*

        I generalized my location as well; small town + niche role = three of us around here. Add in gender and it’s just me.

    4. ATF*

      Not possible in all circumstances, but I definitely generalized my job title and rounded my salary to the nearest more anonymous number for this purpose.

  14. Peanut Hamper*

    My salary is the highest it’s ever been. But rent went up 33%, utilities went up 62%, basic groceries went up 50%, insurance went up 40%. I have less disposable income than I have ever had before.

  15. Quinalla*

    Thank you for doing this every year. There are other sources of salary information that I use in addition, but the more available the better.

  16. Marni*

    On my phone, the drop-down menu for the education question pops up outside of the scrollable area. Answering it required two hands and a lot of finesse. Can that be fixed? I almost had to abandon the survey partway through and go to a different device.

    (Not sure why a couple of things are drop-down menus where the rest are radio buttons. The radio buttons were easier to manage on my device.)

  17. Greg Gill*

    I have worked for John Deere 16 years. I like that every position has a salary pay grade. Want to earn more money? Apply for and obtain a position with a higher salary grade. Check out the Construction and Forestry Division, lots of female manager and leaders making headway in that division. Great company with a family focus on work life balance.

    1. ThatGirl*

      John Deere, you mean the company that had a strike in 2021? I’m not saying it’s a bad place to work but clearly not everyone was happy there…

    2. aquacat*

      i work for FMC and it’s the same! I’m in a tech role, but it pays more than similar roles I’ve had in the tech industry.

  20. Healthcare Manager*

    Would love it if there was a way to specify in area of work public/private. I’m thinking in the case of health care which has both a public and private system. It’s not really very helpful for me to compare salaries in health care without knowing that. Although I imagine the differences within those groups to be more than between!

    1. Millie's Mom*

      And also, I work in health care, but not direct patient care. There are way too many jobs in health care to make that a truly meaningful category, I’m afraid.

    2. Fluffy Fish*

      Public health would generally fall under government as the larger employer category, yes?

    3. HollyTree*

      And perhaps split ‘private’ further into ‘charity/non-profit’ and ‘private’ because I work for a charity as a learning support worker and earn less than is standard for similar private healthcare but more than NHS/education funded positions in my area.

      And also yes to more splits for health care! I realise learning support worker is an especially funny one*, but there’s a vast difference between any support worker or carer and a trained professional like a physio or nurse, and then again between any admin or clerical staff.

      (*Especially since I do adults, which appears again to be less well paid than children/primary+secondary ed across the board. Would be interesting to know for sure.)

  21. [insert witty username here]*

    Aerospace & Defense would be a good industry for next year (or even this year, if possible). It’s definitely a distinct category from what is available

    1. Casey*

      I work in the space sector and put engineering and manufacturing, but I suppose engineering is pretty broad.

    2. Insert Clever Name Here*

      Same with Supply Chain Management. I went with “Transport and Logistics” but it’s really not the same.

    3. Slightly Less Evil Bunny*

      Yeah. I went with Other, then something akin to Defense Contractor. I mean it’s technically government, but probably not what most people really “mean” by government.

  22. msjwhittz*

    I’m confused, those of us in part time positions are supposed to pretend we work full time for this survey?

    1. Hlao-roo*

      For the salary question, yes. If you know your hourly rate, multiply that number by 2080 (40 hrs/week x 52 weeks/yr = 2080 hrs/yr for a full-time job). I think this is because converting your salary to “equivalent salary if you worked full-time” makes it much easier to compare how much people in a given industry/with a given job title are earning.

    2. Mimmy*

      I think it’s just to get an equivalent of what your pay would be if you were full time. I work part-time, and figuring out the FT equivalent helps give me an idea of what salary to aim for in my next (hopefully full time!) position.

      Alison: For next year, it might help to add a question about whether you work full- or part-time.

      1. Mid*

        I actually disagree, since part time has such varied hours. I think having everyone convert to full time salary equivalent is more helpful data.

      2. Moo*

        It might be useful to ask if the position is available part-time or flex as an additional data point

  23. [insert witty username here]*

    Another good piece of information with Education would be “If you have a degree, is it directly related to your current position?”

    I have a BS degree….. in elementary education. I am not, nor have I ever been, a teacher. I’m nowhere near the education field but didn’t realize until senior year of college that wasn’t truly what I wanted to do; I just realized I needed to graduate. I ended up in finance management (still not entirely sure how…. but it’s worked out).

    I think it would be interesting to see how, if at all, this factor ends up affecting compensation.

    1. Millie's Mom*

      Yeah, I’m very interested in stuff like that, but I think that Alison is just doing a bare-bones sort of survey here – as she says, there’s not really room for too much nuance! But I’d love to do or see just a big ol’ study of people and what they do and where they started and how much they make and their education level and if they have a college degree if they are doing work related to that and how long they have been working and even average time at each job they’ve had!

      1. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

        Bonus points for a way to somehow note that I got my degree AFTER I got into my career field rather than before.

    2. Jane Bingley*

      I feel this – I have a JD (law degree) but work as an executive assistant. No regrets, it was the right call for me, but it definitely affects my pay compared to my classmates!

    3. Prospect Gone Bad*

      That’s an interesting one. When reviewing resumes I notice that it’s more common nowadays for people to have 3-5 years after college pivoting between different things and then generally not using their degree (beyond checking a box that they went to college). Much easier to climb the income ladder when you dive into the field at 22

    4. Jessie Spano*

      Agreed! I have an art history degree and work as a children’s librarian. Oh, the winding path of figuring out what to do in life…

  24. JHunz*

    Very happy to see you doing this again, I think it’s both a valuable resource, and also just genuinely interesting to look at the data even if you’re happy with your salary.

    1. Irish Teacher*

      Yup. Pay for my job is very clear. It’s the same nationwide, raises are automatic each year…so I’m not questioning if I could earn more elsewhere nor do I have any opportunity to negotiate (salaries are set by the government anyway!), but it’s still interesting to see.

  25. Bad Wolf*

    Freelance contract work. Lots of work that may not pay off for several years, or at all. I took an average guess of my yearly income. Last year, my tax return was the most complicated I’ve ever done – income from multiple states and 3 countries, plus residuals. This year – just the one 1040ez. After I took Trump’s standard deduction, I made literally negative dollars.

  26. Boulderite*

    I always love to look at who else works in higher ed at Boulder. I see one person also mentioned the 10% retirement match and I’m kicking myself for forgetting that. It’s definitely The Perk that keeps me here.

      2. Hlao-roo*

        There’s an “other” option for both industry of your employer and functional area of your job. If you want to use one of the pre-existing categories, I think cleaning/maintenance work might fall under “Property or construction.” Food service might fall under “Leisure, sport & tourism” or “Hospitality & events.” I don’t see an existing category that looks like a good match for childcare.

  28. Name TBD*

    I wasn’t really sure how to fill in what city I work in since I am 100% remote. I put the town I live in since my government pay is based off my actually duty station, but was wondering if this should really reflect the office I report to?

    2. Nick Savage*

      I’m the same way. I put the city I live in, but it doesn’t actually capture the essence of my work which is for a firm in another country!

    3. Roland*

      I think it really depends. My job is based in Expensive City A, so their baselines are high, but they do adjust by where you live so to me putting the city where I live made sense. If I worked for somewhere that didn’t adjust by where I live then I would have to think about it more.

    4. Weaponized Pumpkin*

      I had the same question, this year and last. I put down my HQ city/state since I believe that’s what my pay scale is originating from, not where I live/work remotely.

  30. Justin*

    “woman, white” is pretty common. But it’s always useful to know rather than making assumptions.

  31. Yeeeeeesh*

    This survey takes up the entire front page for me. Would it be possible to have it collapsed by default?

  32. Comms*

    Any chance we could get Communications added to the function list? It’s a bit different I think (at least for my role!) than marketing or media or anything like that.

  33. Extroverted Bean Counter*

    What are we talking about with “professional work experience”? White collar work? Do I count myself as having 20 years of “professional work experience” since I’ve been supporting myself since I was 17, but the vast majority of that time was serving/bartending? Or does service industry work not count?

    1. Justin*

      I don’t think that’s what she meant. Service industry professionals are just that. But it might be designed to exclude say volunteering and so forth.

      1. icedcoffee*

        I thought it was vague too and figured it had a more concrete meaning in actual business parlance. I interpreted it similarly: not volunteering, not those odd jobs teenagers do. Not sure about working during college. I’d probably count a 20 hr a week job but not a 10 hr a week, regardless of whether it was an off campus bar or an on campus work study.

    2. new year, new name*

      I think it depends, based on your field and your own career trajectory! I personally don’t count the customer service jobs I had as a teenager/college student as part of my “professional work experience” because that doesn’t make a ton of sense for my current career, but I probably would count them if my career was in the service industry.

      1. icedcoffee*

        it’s a two part question though: one’s overall, and one’s in your field. Would you count your customer service jobs for the overall?

        1. ecnaseener*

          I think you should, adjusting for schedule — like, summer jobs count for a couple months each not a year each.

    3. Irish Teacher*

      Personally, I’d say if you were supporting yourself with it, it counts. After all, many (most?) people don’t work in white collar jobs and if somebody is a professional bartender, I definitely think that would count as their professional work experience.

      I took it as “years you’ve been working full-time and would have ticked ’employed’ as your main role in the census” sort of thing, so I didn’t include the work experience I did at college or the year I spent working retail between my degree and post-grad as I never intended that as anything but a temporary job.

      But I would definitely count anything that was a full-time job and not just a temporary thing (like something you did for a gap year between school and college).

      I mean, that’s just my interpretation, but I definitely think service industry work is just as “real” as white collar work.

      1. Extroverted Bean Counter*

        That’s ultimately how I answered.

        What had me wondering if serving/bartending for 15 years counted is the fact that none of those years of experience had any bearing on my current salary. Only my five years in my current career impacted that (went back to school, now a CPA). My title and compensation are only tied to the “how many years experience in your current field” question. My working life prior to this career are certainly important to who I am as a person, but irrelevant for salary comp purposes.

        1. Donner*

          It means “years experience doing the thing for which you are reporting salary information on this spreadsheet.” If you were still a server, then serving/bartending for 15 years would be relevant to your income as a server. Since you are a CPA, you should only put 5 years of CPA experience.

          1. Extroverted Bean Counter*

            So what’s the point of separate questions, then?

            Years working in current field = 5
            Years working professionally =…. also 5?

            1. ecnaseener*

              The point of separate questions is if you’ve worked in more than one field. I think Donner’s saying the “current field” question is the one where you only include the thing you’re currently doing. Total years working professionally would include the serving/bartending.

    4. Just Another Public Librarian*

      I counted it because it’s how I supported myself as well. And the restaurant/retail work I did is what helped me move up quickly in my current field.

    5. Fluffy Fish*

      Professional as in not volunteering or gig work.

      There’s plenty of people who start in one industry and are now in another. Service industry work is valid as any other profession even if it’s not what you are doing now. Count it.

  34. RStar*

    This is an amazing resource! I’d like to suggesting publishing be given its own category. It’s such a unique industry, and I’m not sure whether it’d be media or entertainment as this stands. Also the job functions of editorial specifically are much different in other industries.

    (And also, you all will learn how terribly underpaid most people in publishing are! It’s fun.)

  35. Tray Table Upright*

    Definitely too late for this year but I would love if you tracked if folks were part of a union or not. It would be interesting to see what the impact might be on wages in similar sectors for unionized vs non-unionized employees.

  36. MuseumChick*

    I’m so interested to see the results of this. IDK why but it reminds me of the Knowledge Swap post from a few years ago (I would love to do another one of those, it was so interesting!)

  37. Casey*

    Yes to salary transparency!! With the new California pay transparency law, I found out that I was at the very bottom of the pay band for my role despite being one of the highest performers on my team. Ended up with a 13% raise between leveling adjustments and merit, which is so awesome and would not have happened without that data being so easily available to me.

  38. JTP*

    I entered incorrect information (incorrect math to determine overtime compensation) — is it possible to delete a response?

  39. Alex the Alchemist*

    This might be an overstep to ask on a survey like this, but I also wonder how neurodiversity impacts compensation (not explicitly, of course) and what fields that might impact more than others? I’m not sure if I’m 100% making sense but I know folks with autism/ADHD/etc. might be more prevalent in certain fields and that would play differently into salary. I’m not sure if it’s something anyone would want to disclose on a survey, but it might be interesting to potentially have a “neurotypical/not neurotypical” option in future years (speaking as an autistic person btw, once again, only if folks are comfortable).

    1. Justin*

      Yes it would be interesting to include (I have ADHD). Not sure how, as you are saying. Maybe a disability question with “Decline to answer” as an option.

    2. Web Crawler*

      I’m curious about this too, as an autistic person with a chronic illness. I’m especially curious about the different fields/jobs that other ND people have gone into. Everyone I know is either in technology, engineering, or retail.

    3. allhailtheboi*

      Totally agreed. I work part-time due to my disability and I’d be interested to see what other job roles other disabled people in my country and others have.

      I’d also be interested to see how many hours people actually work. I calculated my salary for if I worked 40 hours, but I actually work 30. Plus a full week in my country is only 37 hours.

    4. Nina*

      I have a sneaking suspicious we’d be overrepresented in a survey run by this site specifically – I’m certainly not the only autistic person I know who spent chunks of their teen years obsessively reading advice columns to learn how to ‘act normal’.

  40. Yes And*

    City should not be a required field. We are the only employer in our industry in this town, and I am the only person with my title at this organization. If anybody in my industry in the greater area were to look at my submission, I might as well be signing my name. I’m sure I’m not the only person who works in a smaller town for whom that’s true.

    2. Fluffy Fish*

      I typed prefer not to say BUT I do agree with you.

      I’m government – if I give you my city any random person could very easily track me down. And people who share my employer would 100% know its me.

      Not happening.

      1. me just me . . .*

        Our state government has every employees’ salary posted and can easily be looked up online.

    3. Irish Teacher*

      I saw somebody just typed “countryside”. I think you could just put something like that or “rural area” or put the nearest large city or “satellite town to *insert large city*” or “town in x county” or something vague.

    4. Extroverted Bean Counter*

      If it’s a bananas niche job title it would make sense anyway to make it more generic so people can compare. Like, my technical title at one point was “Rev Rec Accounting Consultant” but what that really meant was “Senior Accountant”.

      Same with city – Omaha vs “small town” Nebraska is more meaningful than Ralston (suburb) vs Arnold (small town). Just put down what’s meaningful for data collection.

    5. Wordnerd*

      I asked this above and Alison suggested just putting something vague. I put “University Town” for mine instead of the small college town I work in.

    6. Felicity Lemon*

      Another way to answer this without being too identifying — if you’re in a larger metropolitan area, just list the central city. So for example, instead of Evanston, IL, just put Chicago metro area. Or, if in a rural area outside of a metro, just put ‘rural’ for the city as Irish Teacher noted.

    7. Victoryssweet*

      I have a very unique job title as is classic for government here because every job title in a 4000 person organisation must be different for some reason, so I just made it generic. I manage a team of in-house lawyers so job title is “manager [5 words identifying ultra specific areas my team works on]” so I just put “manager” and my industry as government and sub type law.

      1. skittles*

        Oh whoops. That is a big lump. Nothing my job does would fall under engineering, unless “reverse engineering machinery from a company that has since gone out of business” counts?

        1. Ingemma*

          Honestly this makes sense to me to have the lumped. It’s a huge category but not any bigger than any of the other big categories here.
          & from your job title it’s probably feasible to figure out where you are.

          I have an engineering undergrad and work in manufacturing and see a lot of crossover between engineering & manufacturing from my alumni group & coworkers!

  43. Starbuck*

    I’m never quite sure how to categorize myself as someone who’s doing informal environmental & science education working in a non-profit rather than in a K-12 school. Science? Education? Non-profit? Mostly I’m wondering how other people in the field are sorting it.

    1. HollyTree*

      I had a similar dilemma – I’m a learning support worker in adult education so I have a mix of job tasks. I chose to put myself down as what I do most, and in my current rotation I’m mainly supporting adults with complex care needs so doing more caring than education. So, do you do more education tasks or non-profit tasks? That might be a good way of doing it. Or are you paid completely differently to K-12 staff? That might be better for your situation, since I’m paid according to a carer’s wage (but on an education staff’s promotion/training pathway, just to confuse it all)

  44. Flowers*

    Just submit mine! Can’t wait to view it.

    How can I sort the data? I don’t see an option to do so.

    1. ecnaseener*

      I think you have to download it and sort the copy on your computer, at least while the responses are coming in so fast. Google sheets has a “live filter” view that in theory should work, but it kept refreshing and closing out of the filter I was trying to set.

      1. ecnaseener*

        Never mind, I just tried it again and it worked! At least on a computer — move your mouse over the letter of the column and a little downwards arrow should appear on the right side. Click that to sort.

    2. Starbuck*

      In my browser, the spreadsheet is so busy that the option just isn’t available. You’ll have to wait a few days probably, or try downloading it (not that I was able to do that either).

    3. Ask a Manager* Post author

      The first few days that survey is up are always tricky for sorting — so many people are in the sheet at once that it limits some of the normal sorting functionality. Try again at the end of the week and you’ll be able to sort (and there will be a lot more data then too).

    4. Irish Teacher*

      I got it to work by clicking on the heading of what I wanted it to sort for, then going up to the data tab above and clicking on “sort A-Z”.

  45. Beth*

    As someone who completed several years of grad school but did not actually get the degree, THANK YOU for allowing an “Other” option under education. I wish it would become a more common option in surveys.

  46. AlltheQuestions*

    Asking for a company’s revenues or budget would be a great addition and allow people to better gauge their salary vs people at similar sized orgs.

      1. Peanut Hamper*

        A lot of this is publicly available. Most companies love to brag about their sales figures on their websites.

        My company sends out a quarterly email on this. We had €8-9 billion revenue each quarter last year. (Our Christmas bonus was €45. Oh, yay.)

        1. Nina*

          Having it publicly available and having employees know it are two different things.
          At my last workplace, the company finances were known and obsessed about in detail very publicly by hordes of fanboys (it was aerospace, aerospace is weird). Most of the staff didn’t know and didn’t really care about the day-to-day, that’s what the Finance department is for.

      2. allhailtheboi*

        Agreed, plus for those of us in the public or third sector, this is not necessarily a thing in the way it is for private sector organisations.

        1. Irish Teacher*

          Yeah, arguably, for me, it’s…the budget for Ireland’s Department of Education! Which I could possibly find out, but…not sure how relevant it would be. I’m not objecting to its being included, just amused by the idea of the budget of the organisation paying my salary.

          (Just googled and the Department of Education budget is apparently €9.6 billion, in case anybody is interested!)

    2. some random person*

      Perhaps the size of the company or organization based on number of employees would be easier for most people to answer?

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Yes, it’s all since 11 am ET today. This is always wildly popular every year! (I assume because there’s such a hunger for real life salary data.)

    1. Hlao-roo*

      There is an “other” option. Also, depending on your specifics, food service work might fit under “leisure, sport & tourism” or “Hospitality & events.”

      1. Food Service Employee*

        I did use the Other option. There are a lot of food service jobs that don’t fit into those categories (the majority of food service work, really.)

  49. Me--Moving Sucks!*

    My figure is skewed because I’m entry-level in a new field, but it’s gasp-inducing compared to my previous job. The salary is based on location. In my old city I’d be making a ton. In the higher-COL city where I’m relocating, it’s a mid-to-low salary that just barely allows me to live without any roommates. I applied to numerous jobs in the area that paid far less for more experience. :\

    Even though my new apartment is tiny and an hour by transit from the office, I feel like I hit the jackpot, but we’ll see. Where you live makes a huge difference in how far your salary goes.

  50. Amanda*

    I think maybe a few of these have a decimal issue. Otherwise I’d love to meet the middle school librarian pulling in $700k/year!

    2. Raia*

      Yeah when I pivot the data I always clear out/fix the outliers that are wildly inaccurate. With so many people responding it doesn’t really change the results.

  51. VL*

    I just realized that I missed a 0 on the end of my salary, making it look uhhhh real bad. Is there a way to edit my response? The typo would definitely be an outlier and should not be counted.

  52. allhailtheboi*

    I’m gonna spend every minute of downtime at work looking at this data. Really fascinating! Also got to love the people who have put two digital numbers as their annual salary – I assume they meant that many thousands?

    One thing I would mention is that my county (and I’m sure others) doesn’t have a 40 hour work weeks. I’ve calculated my salary for 40 hours as I don’t work full time anyway but I don’t know if others from my country will have bothered doing so.

  53. Avery*

    It’d be nice to have associate’s degrees and certificate programs represented in the education section. My paralegal certificate is more relevant to my current work than my bachelor’s degree, I know that much!
    And I’m in a weird position where I work for a law firm that does work in two states… the states aren’t even adjacent to one another or in the same region of the country. Answered for the one where I actually live, since I work remotely, but my response would be at least somewhat relevant to the other state as well in theory…

    1. Anotheronimous*

      I always wish there was an Associate’s option in these lists… Feels kinda demoralizing to put Some College but not strictly honest to put Bachelor’s since I don’t technically have it even though I walked in the graduation ceremony…

  54. BubbleTea*

    I’m not participating this year because I just quit my job to focus on my self-employment and my income is kind of in flux right now, but I’ll be interested to see what the end results are!

  55. Flowers*

    I’m so glad this was posted. I’ll look and sort through the data in a few days.
    I was hired with one title but have the duties and functions of another title/role – from what research I did, there’s not a huge discrepancy in salary but it is something I plan to ask for during my review. My boss was supportive of this when I spoke to him about it. This would be helpful if there are many in my industry/job title etc.

    1. Chem nerd*

      I think that’s correct. Usually professional degrees include things like medical, law, pharmacy, etc degrees.

  57. Milo*

    Might be best to make the city optional. In small towns, that might give up your anonymity!

    1. Chem nerd*

      I agree, my position is unique enough that listing city would pretty much give me away.

    2. Hlao-roo*

      You can write anything you want in the “City” field. “Greater NYC metro area” if you’re in a suburb, “Southern Indiana” if you’re OK giving a general region of your state, “rural,” “small town,” “prefer not to say” are all acceptable responses in the city field.

  58. Chem nerd*

    I wanted to contribute but unfortunately requiring the city will pretty much take away the anonymity of my entry due to the unique circumstances of my job. Thanks for organizing this though and may in the future that section could be optional.

    1. Avery*

      You don’t have to put your actual city. You can list a region of the state, specify urban/rural, say “no thanks, staying anonymous”… anything that isn’t an outright lie can go in there if need be.

  59. athfriends*

    athens askamanager folks! it’s so fun to see you in the sheet. let’s grab a beer or coffee!

  60. numbercrunching*

    I’ve been waiting all day to download the spreadsheet & start crunching numbers!! Can’t wait to look into wage averages for different ages/regions/genders/races/fields. Also p.s. to everyone adding additional information to their submission, i love you. I’m personally very intrigued by some of the job descriptions on here & will be doing heavy googling tonight haha

  61. BasketcaseNZ*

    Scrolling through to find the Kiwis, and I find someone doing a job title I once had, in my city…
    Its a government role, in a government city, but there is a solid 9/10 chance that if I don’t know them myself, someone I know knows them – this city genuinely has 2 degrees of separation :)

  62. BrightFire*

    It is really fascinating to me that folks with “some college” like myself earn less on average than folks with a high school diploma. I did not expect to find that in the data.

    1. KL*

      I’d expect many of those to be trades workers – it would be interesting to see trade qualifications (electrical, plumbing, etc certifications)

    1. Supervisor*

      I just went to see after your comment. I looked up couple nanny’s pay in the survey and it looks like she may have made a mistake. There is 24/5 (24 hours and 5 days a week) Nanny lives there and getting $149,000 vs 500k+ with not much details.

  64. Jay*

    Oh, goodie.
    Now I feel old AND poor.

    Eh, it’s nothin’ I didn’t know before. It’s actually kinda’ nice to know for mathematically sure I’m over worked and under paid.

  65. KL*

    Sorry if I’ve missed this – how are people including retirement/pension fund contributions? My compensation (in Australia) includes a 10% contribution to my superannuation – this isn’t based on matching, it’s just paid by my employer into my super fund (which is only accessible after turning 60 and retiring). I’m putting this in as monetary compensation but just checking how others are approaching this.

    1. Grumpy Old NCO*

      I admit I didn’t think about that, because the form asked for before-tax income, which I took as being before all deductions, including things like pension plans, RRSPs, etc.

  66. Curious*

    Next year, can you ask about parental leave? Vacation time? Would be so interesting to compare.

      2. Grumpy Old NCO*

        Over 10,000 entries so far, so even if she might get more info with a shorter form, in absolute terms she’s getting a pretty decent data set.

        1. ecnaseener*

          Pretty decent for some purposes (like overall stats), but for those of us with uncommon jobs it’s still not necessarily big enough to give us useful info about what we should/could be making! So I’m glad she keeps it short to maximize responses, despite how many other variables I would in theory love to see.

  67. allinys*

    Can I ask why AUD/NZD are combined? They are two separate currencies with different values and different buying powers in different countries.

  68. Grumpy Old NCO*

    That’s quite a collection of data; have you considered publishing a summary of results? Also, if you’re okay with it, I may download it and play around with the figures myself.

  69. Boof*

    I think it’d be nice to include some sense of hours spent working; weekly average, average weeks/year worked too

  70. LiteralGirl*

    Maybe include a for profit/non-profit toggle? And the size of the company could be helpful!
    This is an amazing service you provide, Alison!

  72. The answer is (probably) 42*

    I mistakenly submitted the survey twice- I thought my new response would overwrite the previous one! (I had made an error in reporting my salary, wrote in thousands without adding the three zeroes at the end, so it appeared as though I reported earning just 1% of my actual income)

    Hopefully Alison will see the nearly identical duplicate entries and delete the obviously incorrect one…

  73. Shamelessly Girting*

    I’d love to see more diverse results from Australia.
    Still, from my (private sector) experience, it’s not unusual for employment contracts here to prohibit discussing salaries. I’d expect some Australian contributors to be circumspect about how much detail they provide. My own role and industry, for example, is almost niche enough to make me identifiable if I hadn’t kept it vague.

  74. trex20*

    I did fill out the survey, but I felt weird about 2 things- I work in a restaurant (I’m a manager) but I have a Masters degree; like almost everyone in my field with a degree, it is entirely unrelated to my job or to me getting my job. Also, I have lots of work experience- I was a waitress for many, many years- but I’ve only been a manager for a year and a half. They don’t count my years waitressing (including several at the company I’m now a manager for) toward my pay.

    1. Supervisor -Medical*

      You definitely need to get out from restaurant industry – but Managing is good step. I make 80k/yr as a supervisor with High School degree in a Medical device company – 2 years in leading and 4 years working as a trainer and assembler.

  75. Elps*

    “Oh, I love this survey! I can’t wait to see the salaries of other folks who have similar work experience and are at the same organizational level as me, surely this will reassure me about my own salary!”
    …
    “GAHDDAMI-“

  76. AnonToday*

    I’m really underpaid for the amount of experience I have. Gonna read up on how to ask for more at evaluation time.

  77. Mfg. Supervisor (Survey is pure GOLD)*

    This is pure GOLD!! I am sorting out the data based on Title, Gender, education and pay. Been looking at it since last night. Indeed, Glassdoor and other websites are nothing compared to what we have collected here at AAM survey.

  78. Victoryssweet*

    Hi, I’m interested in this – are the “professional degrees” like the JD and MD considered higher than a masters in the US? I struggled to answer the question about qualification level because my jurisdiction doesn’t have the concept of “professional degrees” separate from normal bachelor’s degrees, law and med are bachelor’s degrees. Masters and PhD are higher and you don’t need them to practice, you’d do them out of academic interest. Obviously this is a US based site, am just interested in the difference :-)

  80. Linux IT Professional*

    No submit button on Firefox under Linux. Somewhat frustrated that I spent time on a survey I cannot submit. No wonder you’re not getting data.

  81. Survey Analysis*

    Pulled some interesting stats from the currently 15,000+ entries:

    Median Salary
    -all $86k
    -man $105k 18% of respondents
    -woman $85k 77%

    by Race
    -white $86k 88%
    -asian $105k 3.8%
    -hispanic $85k 3%
    -black $93k 1.7%

    Only 2 industries with significant responses (>100) where women earn more than men:
    -Biotech/pharma: $132k vs $130k
    -Education primary/secondary: $69k vs $67k

    Men generally earn more than women. Industries with the biggest differences:
    -Computing/Tech: $155k vs $125k ($30k difference)
    -Accounting/Banking/Finance: $120k vs $92k ($28k difference)
    -Utilities/Telecom: $115k vs $96k ($19k difference)

    C Suite (Chief ____ Officer type jobs) had a notable gap, though not a lot of responses overall:
    -man $151k (14 responses)
    -woman $115k (49 responses)

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