The IEMA pay and benefits survey 2011 reveals the differing levels of pay of environment professionals
Almost half the survey sample (47% of respondents) are employed in business and industry, excluding consultancy, which accounted for another 30.9%. Nearly one in five (18.4%) works in the public sector, while academic or research institutions employ 3.6% of those polled.
Figure 1 shows the median total annual earnings by broad job level in both the private and public sectors and reveals, predictably, that higher earnings are associated with more senior positions across all sectors.
Figure 1: Median annual earnings by seniority in sector
The education sector, including academic research institutions, follows this trend over the researcher-to-professor progression, with median salaries between that of a middle manager and coordinator/specialist in private sector business. The figures for education earnings need to be treated with more caution than the other sectors since the samples are very small, especially for the more senior posts.
Table 1 reinforces the picture suggested by figure 1: that practitioners in the private sector, whether they are employed by consultancies or manufacturing or service businesses, have higher total earnings than their public sector counterparts. This is in line with official data; the government’s annual survey of hours and earnings found a median salary of £24,695 for all private sector workers in April 2010, while the median for the public sector was £23,680.
| Total earnings | |||
| Sector/base | Senioriity | Mean | Median |
| Business and industry | Overall | £44,135 | £39,303 |
| 38 | Executive director | £81,899 | £77,000 |
| 200 | Senior manager | £57,452 | £52,000 |
| 364 | Middle manager | £42,943 | £40,000 |
| 321 | Coordinator/specialist | £36,402 | £34,000 |
| 61 | Assistant/junior position | £24,740 | £24,000 |
| Consultancy | Overall | £37,524 | £32,500 |
| 152 | Director/partner/associate | £53,297 | £50,000 |
| 213 | Senior/principle consultant | £37,383 | £36,000 |
| 282 | Consultant/specialist | £29,129 | £25,600 |
| Public sector | Overall | £34,540 | £31,532 |
| 101 | Senior/principle officer | £45,550 | £39,000 |
| 226 | Middle-ranking officer | £33,052 | £31,000 |
| 66 | Junior officer | £24,563 | £24,628 |
| Education/academia/research | Overall | £34,540 | £35,000 |
| 7 | Professor/senior lecturer | £47,714 | £49,000 |
| 10 | Lecturer | £34,395 | £35,075 |
| 9 | Researcher | £23,557 | £30,000 |
| 29 | Facilities/estates | £35,100 | £36,000 |
| 21 | Other | £34,152 | £31,700 |
Research by pay analysts the Hay Group has found that the differential between private and public sector jobs widens at senior levels, a finding that is also reflected in our survey. For example, a senior/principal officer in the public sector can expect to earn £39,000, which is comparable to that of a middle manager in business and industry, who typically earns £40,000. This conclusion is also supported by the data in the next section, which looks at average earnings by industrial sector.
Read the full survey results:
- IEMA pay and benefits survey 2011 - Key findings
- A profession on the move says Jan Chmiel, IEMA's chief executive
- Earnings by seniority in sector
- Earnings by industrial sector
- Earnings by IEMA membership level
- Earnings by highest qualification
- The gender gap: Men and women's pay
- Changes to pay in 2010
- Changes to bonuses and additional payments
- Holidays and benefits
- From downturn to upturn - the current job market
- The 2011 IEMA survey sample
