Details of the environment professionals polled for IEMA's pay and benefits survey 2011
The survey was conducted using an online questionnaire between 23 December 2010 and 11 January 2011. Invitations to complete the survey were emailed to 11,933 current members. The invitation excluded students and those whose records indicate they are located outside of the UK.
There were 2,318 individual responses, a 19.4% response rate. For the salary analyses, those who were unemployed or retired were removed from the sample, along with those who had not provided data on their earnings and respondents who had not specified the region they work in. The remaining sample for salary analysis after this filtering was 2,100.
Table 1 provides a breakdown of the sample by sector and broad job role.
| 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 |
Measured against the whole of IEMA’s UK membership, the respondents are a reasonable representation. The sample has a higher proportion of Full members. They make up 11.2% of respondents used for salary analysis, but only 5.6% of UK members.
The largest group, Associate members, are also slightly over-represented – at 68.7% of the salary sample and 62.1% of UK members. Fellows too are over-represented, accounting for 0.3% of UK membership but 0.9% of the salary base. Both Affiliate and graduate members were slightly under-represented, with 15% of the salary sample and 22% of the UK membership and 4.2% of the survey and 6.7% of UK membership respectively.
Respondents were asked to indicate their primary area of work. The five most common areas are:
- health, safety and environmental (HSE) management (19.9%);
- environmental management (18.0%);
- sustainability (9.2%);
- impact assessment (EIA, SEA, SA) (9.1%);
- environmental protection/regulation (6.7%).
No industrial sector dominated the sample. Environmental consultants were the biggest group, making up 16.8% of respondents. Practitioners employed in manufacturing organisations were the next biggest group with 14.2% of the sample, followed by construction (12.3%), non-environmental consultancies (7.9%) and local government (including planning departments) (6.8%).
Asked about additional professional accreditation, 11.1% of the sample said that they are chartered environmentalists (two-thirds of them registered through IEMA) and 11% said they are IEMA auditors.
Read more:
- 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
