Thanks to all of the CE News subscribers who took our compensation survey this year. Your participation is immensely valuable to the CE News community. We find the results article to be one of the most read articles of the year.

The results of the 10th Annual CE News Salary Survey are paired with research about how people are finding jobs and tactics for the job search, since we learned that 31 percent of respondents are planning to change jobs this year. Coupled with the 8 percent of respondents reporting a job change between February 2007 and 2008, it is clear that our readers are transient. Gone are the days when people desired to stay put for the majority of their career. Today, people continuously endeavor to "climb to the top," although the meaning of the top varies from person-to-person and likely changes as each individual’s career evolves. The list below shows what is motivating this 31 percent of respondents to consider a job change:

If you plan to change jobs in 2008, what are the reasons for making a change? (check all that apply)

• Desire better compensation—17 percent
• Desire better career opportunities—16 percent
• Desire better quality of life (such as work/life balance, shorter commute, less stress, et cetera)—14 percent
• Desire better company culture/personality fit—10 percent
• Desire better benefits—9 percent
• Desire to learn/use new skills—9 percent
• Desire for ownership opportunities—6 percent
• Other—3 percent
• Current firm is downsizing—2 percent

The good news here is few people are planning to change jobs because their current firm is downsizing. We also found that only two percent of respondents reported losing a permanent job because of a layoff/downsizing event between February 2007 and 2008. In the current economic climate, this is good news, and I hope these statistics will remain low.

It’s always interesting to note trends, and now that we’ve been using similar questions and reporting for our compensation survey for the past five years, we can begin to pinpoint some definitive industry changes. For example, since 2003, the median increase in median salaries by years of experience is 14.8 percent. The 25 to 30 years of experience group saw the greatest jump in median salary: 29.7 percent. Meanwhile, the 2-4 years of experience group changed the least, with salaries only increasing by 9.1 percent.

The percentage of respondents who received bonuses has increased for every experience range, most significantly for the youngest set: In 2003, only 40 percent of respondents with 0 to 2 years of experience received a bonus, but this year 81 percent received one. The median increase in the number of respondents who received a bonus was 26 percent. Median bonus amounts have also risen significantly, especially for those with 0 to 2 years of experience; they saw a 200 percent increase. The overall median increase in bonus amount was a remarkable 100 percent.

While salaries and bonuses have been on the rise, raises have not. In fact, there has been a decline in the median percentage of respondents who received a raise; 3 percent fewer respondents received a raise in 2008 than 2003. However, those hard-to-find folks with 7 to 10 years of experience didn’t follow this trend; the median percent who received a raise was up 9 percent. The only other two groups who received more raises in 2008 than 2003 (3 percent) were the 4-7 and more than 30 years of experience groups.
Benchmarking compensation is a healthy exercise for individuals and firms to do, whether you are changing jobs or just assessing your current situation. We hope the resources provided here are helpful. Let us know your thoughts about the trends identified and the results of our 2008 analysis by e-mailing me at sfauerbach@zweigwhite.com.