The 2018 edition of the annual Quirk’s corporate researcher salary survey received 1,075 usable qualified responses from full-time client-side insights professionals. In the past five years, we have seen a consistent trend in reported changes in employment as well as job satisfaction and total compensation. This year we’re happy to report a slight upward trend in companies looking to hire additional marketing research employees.
As we did in last year’s edition, we’re letting the data speak for itself, highlighting a few tidbits and sprinkling respondent comments throughout. If you’d 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.
So what does the research industry look like today?
Demographics
In 2016 and 2017 we found a larger percentage of employed client-side respondents were women as compared to men and made a note to watch this trend. This year, in addition to showing you the usual gender breakdown, we took a deeper look at the role of women in MR.
Changes in employment
Given the continued relative stability of today’s job market, marketing researchers are pursuing new employment in hopes of better positions. Thirty-two percent of respondents reported that they are likely to seek employment at a different company this year. In addition, 40 percent of respondents said it was somewhat likely, likely or very likely that their company would hire additional marketing research employees in 2018 – up from 35 percent in 2017.
And according to verbatims from our 2018 survey, sometimes the grass is greener on the other side:
“I switched jobs from for-profit to not-for-profit and it’s much, much, much better.”
“I used to work on the supplier side at a market research firm. I switched to client-side nearly three years ago. I work a lot less now – 40 hours a week compared to the previous 60 hours a week when I was supplier-side. My dollars per hour is a lot higher even though I make slightly less overall than I did when I was supplier-side.”
Job satisfaction
Aside from a bout of dissatisfaction in 2011, job satisfaction has remained fairly consistent since Quirk’s began reporting on the data. The 2018 survey shows that approximately 74 percent reported that they are somewhat satisfied, satisfied or very satisfied with their current employment. As in the past, we dug into the comments in the compensation section and found a few respondents highlighting non-traditional or non-monetary benefits that likely impact job satisfaction:
“I’ve received about $10,000 worth of video games at my job every year.”
“We receive a ton of benefits from the company including: gym membership, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, unlimited PTO, etc.”
“I am provided with a company car for business travel inside our territory and also a company phone.”
Compensation
Approximately 81 percent of respondents saw an increase in base salary during the past year and less than 4 percent reported a decrease. Some reported the disappointment of stagnant compensation and others were happy to report promotions:
“Our bonuses were decreased for everyone but the company gave us a couple extra vacation days as a ‘substitute.’”
“I haven’t had a raise in several years ...”
“Job promotion led to base salary change.”
“Despite strong performance ratings, it [compensation] was a tiny increase – less than cost of living change – and delivered using only restricted stock. Leaves me contemplating a change.”
One comment serves as a reminder that knowing your worth can be powerful leverage when negotiating a raise:
“I was able to work up to this level of compensation by showing my manager the results of this salary survey.”
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 health care/pharmaceuticals (10 percent), followed by consumer goods (9 percent), banking/financial (8 percent) and media/publishing/information (7 percent).
As in the past, several respondents indicated that they are unemployed, with 81 percent noting that they are actively seeking employment. We hope that this study encourages everyone on the MR job sidelines, specifically those who are still finding it difficult to secure employment in today’s job market.
The survey has so much more to offer than we can include in this report. If you are interested in seeing a breakdown of compensation for all job titles, including crosstabs by age, gender, location, industry and more, visit www.quirks.com/tools/salary-survey and start digging!
Methodology
The Q Report work life 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. The survey was fielded from June 6 to June 28, 2018. In total we received 1,075 usable qualified responses. An interval (margin of error) of 2.9 at the 95 percent confidence level was achieved. (Not all respondents answered all questions.)