The 2019 edition of the annual Quirk’s corporate researcher salary survey received responses from a total of 828 full-time (defined as 35+ hours per week) client-side insights professionals. In the past few years, we have seen a consistent trend in reported changes in employment as well as job satisfaction and total compensation.
As we’ve done in the past, we’re letting the data speak for itself, highlighting a few tidbits and sharing respondent comments throughout. In honor of publishing our first salary survey article 10 years ago, we will also be sprinkling in a few data points from years past to see how far we’ve come since the study debuted.
If you would like a more detailed look at the salary survey (as well as supplier-side salary data), it is available online at: www.quirks.com/tools/salary-survey.
Demographics
This year, 43% of respondents reported having 16 or more years of experience in marketing research, higher than many previous years – though not quite as high as last year’s survey (46%). In 2009, 36% reported 16+ years and in 2010 it sat at 35%. While this may speak more to Quirk’s loyal reader base, it is interesting to note this slight shift.
Changes in employment
Given that the salary survey debuted at the height of the Great Recession, it doesn’t come as a surprise that today’s respondents are reporting a higher likelihood that their company will hire additional market research employees in the next 12 months. Back in 2010, 60% said it was very unlikely, unlikely and somewhat unlikely that their company would hire additional employees in 2010. Today only 48% report it as very unlikely, unlikely and somewhat unlikely.
On another interesting note, today’s respondents are more likely to report that they have been at their current job for less than one year (13%) than in 2009 (8%). This is possibly due to more comfortability with job hopping – or an increase in open MR positions – as the economy has improved.
When looking through this year’s verbatims, we were also reminded of the pros and cons when changing jobs:
“I left a dysfunctional dept. culture for a better culture, more flexibility and a nice office to boot. Since I now have my health care and other benefits with my wife’s plan, the pay difference is negligible. The boost in my sanity is well worth it.”
“Base salary decreased as I moved sideways into a new role and took a base salary cut and lost company car benefit.”
Job Satisfaction
While past surveys (2011, specifically) show that the research industry went through bouts of dissatisfaction in the workplace, job satisfaction has remained relatively steady since our 2013 report. The 2019 survey shows that approximately 75% reported that they are somewhat satisfied, satisfied or very satisfied with their current employment.
Compensation
Less than 4% of respondents reported a decrease in base salary during the past year and approximately 82% saw an increase. As in previous years, we dug into the comments in the compensation section:
“We had a great year and blew out our targets.”
“Company is going through a tough time so no raises or bonuses were given as far as I’m aware.”
“2018 was a tough year for my company.”
“I was promoted from research analyst to senior research analyst last year and received a 10% bonus.”
“Company went private so stock benefits decreased significantly.”
“I was promoted.”
“The only monetary compensation I receive is my salary.”
“Bonus is tied to overall business performance. Revenues were flat YOY, so bonus targets were not met.”
“I changed jobs earlier this year and my base salary went down but I was given a signing bonus that took me above my prior job’s salary. That, and the value of the additional benefits – free benefits, 401k contribution – made the position very attractive.”
“Base salary increased due to promotion bonus increase due to above average scoring on the employee rating scale.”
“Bonus and other non-base compensation directly linked to company performance (which was weak) and hence major reductions.”
“I switched jobs so base salary improved significantly.”
Respondent Industries
Quirk’s annual salary survey continues to receive responses from a wide variety of industries. This year, the highest percent of client-side respondents were employed in organizations that operate in consumer goods (10%), health care/pharmaceuticals (10%), media/publishing/information (7%), banking/financial (7%) and insurance (6%).
Methodology
The Q Report work life and salary and compensation study of corporate researchers is based on data gathered from an invite-only online survey sent to pre-qualified marketing research end-client subscribers of Quirk’s and members of ESOMAR and The Insight Management Academy. The survey was fielded from May 22 to July 1, 2019. In total we received 828 usable qualified responses. An interval (margin of error) of 3.35 at the 95% confidence level was achieved. (Not all respondents answered all questions.)