June - Modern Materials Handling

modern SPECIAL REPORTEducation paysSalaries are highest for readers with MBAsand other graduate degrees.Level of educationMBA (13%)Other graduate degree (10%)Undergraduate degree (45%)High school/some college (28%)$65,000$61,000Other (3%)$54,000$65,000Median salary$83,000$85,000$78,000$74,0002009 2008$97,700$100,000Experience pays, eventuallySalaries jump up among readers who’ve worked in theindustry for 15 years or longer.Years in the materialshandling industry20 years or longer (41%)15 years to less than 20 years (15%)10 years to less than 15 years (16%)5 years to less than 10 years (11%)Less than 5 years (16%)$54,000$59,000Median salary$70,088$70,000$72,2502009 2008$84,000$80,500$75,000$72,450$84,500what’s happening at his company. “True, we haven’t takenpay increases, but our people are OK with it because we alsohaven’t had to have cuts or layoffs,” Heath says. “We understandthis is a short-term economic environment, so we’reusing this slowdown as an opportunity to retrain our peopleA closer look at our readersIn April, Modern’s research team e-mailed our salary surveyto a sampling of our subscribers. It was exactly the same asthe 2008 version, to compare apples to apples. The marginof error is plus or minus 3.2% at the 95% confidence level.We received 932 qualified responses, up 9.13% from lastyear’s 854 responses.Who responded? The profile of our typical surveyrespondent is 48-year-old, college-educated male who hasa supervisory role within the organization, with an averageof about 30 people in his charge. Of the 71% of collegegraduates, 26% hold advanced degrees beyond the undergraduatelevel.Modern’s readers have been racking up the years: Thetypical worker has been in the industry for an average 17.14years, and most have worked for three or four companies.They have been with their present employer for an averageof 7.49 years and 44% plan to stay put until retirement.and research processes improvements—all things that wedon’t have the time to do when things are very busy.”He adds, “It’s not always about money. This is a challengingprofession and the field continues to evolve with technol-This year, 91% of respondents are male, but that’s down2% from 93% last year. Which, of course, means that morewomen responded to our survey this year—9%, up from 7%in 2008.Respondents’ roles are diverse and include warehouse,distribution, logistics and supply chain directors and supervisors;engineering personnel; facility, operations, productionand project managers; and company management allthe way up to presidents and chief executive officers.On average, the companies our readers work for employabout 525 people, and the median revenue for 2008was $120 million. The primary activity at their locationsis manufacturing, warehouse/distribution and corporateheadquarters. A broad scope of industries is represented inthe survey, including electronics, retail, food and beverage,machinery, fabricated metal products, as well as transportationequipment and services.22 J UNE 2009 / MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING mmh.com