MHL2015SalarySurvey

It’s probably too soon to say the economy has fully recovered from the recession of the previous decade, but based on the findings from the MH&L 2015 Salary Survey, the “haves” significantly

outnumber the “have-nots.” Fully two-thirds (66%) of all respon-dents saw their salary increase in 2014, and 69% anticipate getting a raise in 2015. All told, the average salary for material handling and logistics professionals is now up to $86,085 (a very modest 2% bump from the previous MH&L survey, conducted in 2013).

Job satisfaction, too, is on the upswing, as 71% of respondents say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their current jobs (up 6% from the previous salary), and 74% say they are satisfied or very satisfied with material handling and logistics as a career path (an increase of 4% from 2013). These numbers reflect the highest level of satisfaction since the previous decade.

1 8 | MATERIAL HANDLING & LOGISTICS | M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | w w w . m h l n e w s . c o m

Working Hard for the MoneyMH&L’s exclusive 2015 Salary Survey reveals that job satisfaction for material handling and logistics professionals is climbing faster than the average salary.By Dave Blanchard

Cover Feature | Salary Survey


And yet, the material handling and logistics profes-sion still seems to be a best-kept secret. When asked what is the biggest challenge facing the industry to-day, a preponderance of respondents say it’s attracting and retaining talent. What’s more, 56% say they’ve struggled in the past year to fill positions due to a lack of skilled candidates. This is a problem that’s not going away anytime soon, and needs to be addressed on any number of levels, particularly since two-thirds (66%) of all material handling and logistics professionals are in their 50s or older, and training the next generation of managers will be of vital importance.

One thing the salary survey data lets us do is cre-ate a profile of what the typical material handling and logistics professional looks like, based on which re-sponses to any given question appear most frequently. This “typical” professional, then, is a white male in his 50s living in the Midwest, with 26-30 years of experi-ence in the industry, and working for a manufacturer of material handling equipment. This archetypal person is in a corporate/senior executive role, has a four-year college degree, has been with his current company for 6-10 years, and did not earn a bonus last year. And as stated earlier, he makes $86,085 per year.

Chances are good that at least a handful of readers come pretty close to fitting that exact description, but every individual has their own story to tell, so in addi-tion to the charts on the following pages that summa-rize the survey findings, this article will also give voice (anonymously, of course) to many of your peers who took the time to tell us about the challenges they face in their daily work lives, as well as their ideas about what’s wrong… and what’s right… with the state of the industry, the economy, the government and any-thing else that’s on their mind.

“Because of the world we live in today, especially over the last 20 years, those in the material handling/distribution field are being asked to do more, in less time, while being measured against impossible-to-maintain metrics and achieve these ever-shrinking yearly budgets.”—warehouse/logistics manager at a wholesaler/distributor with more than 40 years of expe-rience, living in the South Central and earning $60,000

“Repressive government regulations will continue to have a deleterious effect upon business and indus-try, whether it is shippers, clients, or carriers.”—sup-ply chain manager with a food & beverage company with 26-30 years of experience, living in the North Central and earning $86,000


Average Salary by Geographic Region

Region (% of response) Salary

■ New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT) (4%) $72,735

■ Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA) (13%) $86,793

■ South Atlantic (DC, DE, FL, GA,

MD, NC, SC, VA, WV) (15%) $86,102

■ North Central (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI,

MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI) (38%) $82,263

■ South Central (AL, AR, KY, LA,

MS, OK, TN, TX) (12%) $95,603

■ Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT,

NM, NV, UT, WY) (5%) $93,609

■ Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA) (9%) $92,773

Other North America (4%) $74,528

Average Salary by Staff Size

Number of employees you manage (% of response) Salary0-10 (63%) $82,867

11-25 (21%) $89,204

26-50 (8%) $90,480

51-100 (3%) $100,269

More than 100 (5%) $99,293

w w w . m h l n e w s . c o m | M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | MATERIAL HANDLING & LOGISTICS | 2 1

Average Salary by Industry

Industry sector (% of response) Salary

Aerospace & Defense (5%) $88,540

Automotive/Transportation Vehicles

& Equipment (5%) $74,309

Chemicals (3%) $97,558

Computer & Electronic Products (3%) $82,363

Construction/Building Equipment (5%) $90,000

Consulting/Education (3%) $97,773

Consumer Goods/Durables (5%) $81,435

Electrical Equipment (3%) $87,462

Energy/Utilities (2%) $103,250

Food, Beverage & Tobacco (6%) $94,704

Industrial Products/Machinery (7%) $76,948

Material Handling Equipment (13%) $84,696

Metals/Metal Products (4%) $94,914

Paper/Printing/Publishing (3%) $87,007

Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare (3%) $105,740

Plastics & Rubber Products (3%) $77,053

Retail Trade (3%) $110,393

Third-Party Logistics Provider (3%) $83,714

Transportation/Warehousing (8%) $77,615

Wholesaler/Distributor (11%) $80,710

Other (e.g., Furniture & Fixtures,

Glass Products) (2%) $79,600

For information, go to www.mhlnews.hotims.com/56382-115

Average Salary by Job Responsibility

Position (% of response) Salary

Consultant (3%) $99,857

Corporate/Executive/Senior

Management (16%) $125,504

Distribution/Warehouse/Logistics

Manager (15%) $78,018

Engineering Manager (10%) $92,436

Inventory/Materials Manager (4%) $76,374

Maintenance Manager (6%) $75,231

Operations Manager (11%) $82,205

Plant/Manufacturing Manager (6%) $70,806

Purchasing/Procurement/Sourcing

Manager (4%) $79,410

Sales/Business Development Manager (9%) $68,541

Supply Chain Manager/Director (5%) $92,031

Transportation/Fleet/Traffic Manager (7%) $64,911

Other (Design, Quality, Safety, etc.) (4%) $63,955


“Supply chain/logistics is a very hot job right now with a greater emphasis being placed on it by companies, which is great to see. We need to ensure that the new entrants to the job force have a good foundation of business principles as well. This makes them very well rounded and able to see the entire picture of a company’s opera-tions.”—senior executive at a wholesaler/distribu-tor with 16-20 years of experience, living in the North Central and earning $146,000

“The industry does not value experience any-more like they used to. All they look at is the salary being lower for younger engineers, who will not stay in place for more than five years. They then lose all the experience/knowledge and wonder why things start going bad. I have seen it much more since 2005!”—senior manufacturing process engineer with a consumer goods company with 26-30 years of experience, living in the South Central and earning $91,000


For information, go to www.mhlnews.hotims.com/56382-115

Average Salary by Education Level

Highest level attained (% of response) Salary

$88,619High School (11%)

Some College (26%)

2-yr Degree (10%)

4-yr Bachelor’s Degree(29%)

Some Graduate Study (6%)

Master’s Degree or Higher (17%)

$65,543

$79,430

$71,361

$89,218

$97,776

$109,081

“The job market is wide open for smart people who will work hard at what needs to be done. America’s dream is not dead if we take the time and money to train our people for the skills needed to compete in a global marketplace. We need more drug-free trades-people. We have plenty of people applying that need to work but no one has been taught to do anything. Whatever happened to voc-tech in high school?”—operations manager at a material handling equipment manufacturer with 36-40 years of experience, living in the South Central and earning $114,500

From Sea to Shining SeaGeographically speaking, when it comes to supply

chain salaries, it sometimes seems that where you do something is just as important as what you do. The largest percentage of material handling and logistics jobs in the U.S.—38%—are in the North Central re-gion of the country (primarily the Midwest), so the average salary ($82,263) is quite a bit lower than in other regions, such as the Pacific ($92,773) and the South Central ($95,603). The lowest salaried region, though, is New England ($72,735), which is also by far the smallest area, with only 4% of the total number of supply chain jobs (see map, p. 20).

For those of us living in cold-weather states, it’s kind of disheartening that the warm-weather states also pay better, too, for supply chain talent.

“With Arizona being a right-to-work state, salaries are always going to be low.”—inventory/materials manager with a healthcare products manufacturer with 11-15 years of experience, living in the Mountain re-gion and earning $58,000

“My main concern is that New Hampshire is con-sidering a proposal to double the minimum wage increase. This will certainly hurt New Hampshire’s businesses and may force some to relocate to a differ-ent state.”—plant manager with a paper/printing com-pany with 26-30 years of experience, living in New England and earning $67,500

It’s Still a Man’s WorldFacebook recently made headlines when the social

media giant revealed it offers 58 different gender op-tions to its users. Here at MH&L, we continue to offer just two options on the survey, and while the results are still unfortunately skewed in one direction, there is at least some small sign that the gender gap—while huge—is shrinking a little bit. In our previous (2013)

w w w . m h l n e w s . c o m | M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | MATERIAL HANDLING & LOGISTICS | 2 3

Average Salary by Race

Ethnic background SalaryAsian or Pacific Islander (3%) $80,584

Black/African-American (2%) $74,778

Hispanic/Latino (3%) $90,933

Native American or Alaska Native (1%) $78,125

White/Caucasian (87%) $86,618

Other/Prefer not to say (4%) $81,562

Average Salary by Company Size

Annual corporate revenues (% of response) Salary

Less than $50 million (41%) $78,600

$51 million-$100 million (13%) $77,928

$101-$500 million (17%) $88,866

$501 million-$1 billion (8%) $90,394

$1 billion-$20 billion (16%) $106,788

More than $20 billion (5%) $96,816

Average Salary by Experience

Years in material handling and logistics (% of response) Salary

0-2 (5%) $68,653

3-5 (6%) $73,993

6-10 (8%) $82,206

11-15 (12%) $75,120

16-20 (15%) $90,277

21-25 (15%) $81,292

26-30 (17%) $91,363

31-35 (10%) $93,818

36-40 (7%) $99,483

41+ (5%) $96,482

Average Salary by Gender

Gender (% of response) Salary

$88,619

$70,800

Male (86%)

Female (14%)

survey, men held 89% of all material handling and lo-gistics jobs, with an average salary of $87,053. With just 11% of all jobs, women were averaging $62,987, or 28% less than their male counterparts.

In 2015, the disparity is slightly less. Men still have the lion’s share of the jobs in the industry, with 86% representation, and an average salary of $88,619. Women, though, have closed the gap by 3 percent-age points, to now representing 14% of all jobs, at an average salary of $70,800. Men are still making, on average, 20% more than women, which however you choose to look at the numbers, is an embarrassment to the industry, particularly an industry that is constantly trying to attract and retain talent.

As MH&L’s senior editor Adrienne Selko noted in a recent commentary, women are an untapped source of supply chain talent, and many of the selling points companies are using to attract young people to the industry are important factors to women as well. Em-phasizing the high-tech aspects of the profession, and offering a clearly-defined career path, competitive sal-aries and the opportunity to create green supply chains are all things companies should be doing to recruit more women into the profession.

“I have to do a lot of ‘secretarial’ things in my job as regional manager, which I feel is because I am female. I feel for all the things I do that do not relate to my title as regional manager I am underpaid.”—female sales manager with a plastics/rubber products manufacturer with 16-20 years of experience, living in the Mountain region and earning $94,000

“My personal opinion is that in this industry a white male would have a greater salary than a minor-ity woman.”—female plant manager with a consumer goods/durables manufacturer with 16-20 years of expe-rience, living in the Pacific region and earning $52,000

“Women in business are not as valued as men and it’s reflected in their salaries.”—purchasing manager with a plastics/rubber products manufacturer with 31-35 years of experience, living in the North Central and earning $33,000

Working for a LivingThe largest percentage of respondents (13%) work

for manufacturers of material handling equipment, earning an average salary of $84,696. That salary is pretty close to the average for all material handling and logistics professionals, sandwiched in between



Average Salary by Age

Age (% of response) Salary21-29 (2%) $49,471

30-39 (9%) $70,307

40-49 (26%) $84,035

50-59 (37%) $88,363

60-69 (24%) $92,242

70+ (2%) $100,000

Average Salary by Seniority

Years with current company (% of response) Salary0-2 (11%) $77,046

3-5 (11%) $79,646

6-10 (19%) $83,580

11-15 (17%) $92,740

16-20 (13%) $87,932

21-25 (8%) $81,416

26-30 (9%) $82,539

30+ (12%) 98,931

Do you anticipate getting a raise to your base salary in 2014? (% of response)

No 31%

Yes, between 1-3% 47%

Yes, between 3-5% 17%

Yes, more than 5% 5%

Will you be looking for a new job in 2015?

Yes, seeking a new job at another company 16%

Yes, seeking a new job within same company 2%

Maybe, if the right opportunity comes along 41%

No 41%

How would you characterize your company’s growth potential for 2015?

Dynamic 22%

Moderate 55%

Flat 17%

Shrinking 6%

the other major verticals that make up the respondent base of the industry. The lowest-paying industries, on average, are automotive ($74,309), industrial prod-ucts/machinery ($76,948), plastics & rubber products ($77,053) and transportation/warehousing ($77,615).

The highest-paying industries, on the other hand, include energy/utilities ($103,250), pharmaceuticals/healthcare ($105,740) and retail trade ($110,393). All three of these verticals, however, represent a fairly small percentage of the total, so if you’re thinking of shifting industries for a bigger paycheck, be aware that the number of openings is likely to be small.

In the category of “tell me something I didn’t al-ready know,” corporate/senior management is the best-paying job title, with an annual salary of $125,504.

When it comes to income, it’s good to be the Big Boss. Consultants are also doing well ($99,857), as are supply chain managers/directors ($92,031). Those with a role in transportation/fleet/traffic management, however, have the lowest average salary among material handling and lo-

gistics executives, at $64,911.So what matters most to you

about your job? We asked that question, and respondents told us that it comes down to two key things: job stability (25% of re-sponses) and base salary (19%). Not coincidentally, 55% of the

respondents say their company ei-ther reduced staff or made no changes to staff size in 2014, indicating that the wait-and-see attitude preva-lent during the recession hasn’t completely gone away. Also, 59% say they’ll at least entertain the pos-sibility of changing jobs in 2015, so as the economy continues to recover, so too will thoughts of seeking greener pastures.

“Difficult to find electro-mechanical technicians these days. Hard to compete with the big compa-nies who can offer internships, higher wages and greater opportunities.”—senior executive at a ma-terial handling equipment manufacturer with 26-30 years of experience, living in the South Atlantic and earning $150,000

“With the gutting of U.S. manufacturing, the conveyor business has shifted to very competitive warehousing type conveyors from the more lucra-tive equipment needed for factories. Our government



How satisfied are you with your current job? (% of response)

Satisfied 44%

Very satisfied 27%

Neither satisfied nor unsatisfied 18%

Unsatisfied 9%

Very unsatisfied 2%

What matters most to you about your job? (% of response)

Job Stability 25%

Base Salary 19%

Career Advancement Opportunities 12%

Recognition of Your Importance to Company 12%

Flexible Schedule 10%

Company’s Recognition of the Importance of

Material Handling and Logistics 8%

Benefits 8%

Relationships with Co-Workers 3%

Vacation Time 2%

Continuing Education/Training 1%

Other (e.g., Client Retention, Company Culture,

Job Satisfaction, Sustainability) 1%

How satisfied are you with material handling and logistics as a career path?

(% of response)

Very satisfied 35%

Satisfied 39%

Neither satisfied nor unsatisfied 25%

Unsatisfied 1%

Very unsatisfied 1%


must start adding the cost of our government regu-lations and corporate tax rates to the goods coming in from outside our borders to stop 30 years of trade deficits of $500 to $800 billion per year. That wealth is bypassing working-class America totally now.”—business development manager at a material handling equipment manufacturer with 31-35 years of experi-ence, living in the South Central and earning $57,000

“The defense industry suffers during these times of international unrest.”—engineering manager with a metal products manufacturer with 6-10 years of expe-rience, living in the South Central and earning $90,000

“Hoping the economy turns around for the oil & gas industries.”—supply chain manager with an oilfield services company with more than 40 years of experi-ence, living in the South Central and earning $120,000

While material handling and logistics professionals, on the whole, are quite satisfied with their current jobs, an offer of more money at a better company—however you want to define “better”—is a powerful lure. Re-cruiting top talent is absolutely crucial to guaranteeing the success of the supply chain profession, but retain-ing top talent is equally important to guaranteeing the success of your company.


The Method to Our MadnessThe MH&L 2015 Salary Survey was conducted

online via e-mailed invitations to a select group of subscribers. The survey took place in January 2015, with nearly 500 responses (491). Respondents were not compensated, but were offered the chance to win an American Express gift card. All responses were anonymous.

The Rest of the StoryGo online to www.mhlnews.com/salarysurvey to

� nd even more salary � gures and charts from the MH&L 2015 Salary Survey, including a slideshow gallery of tables detailing responses to questions not featured in the print magazine. You can also read hundreds of open-ended comments from respondents about the biggest challenges confronting supply chain managers, as well as their observations about the industry and their role within it. You can also access salary survey results from previous years, as well as related articles and commentary focused on workforce issues within the industry.

How has your company’s staffing changed over the past year?

Added staff 45%

No change 32%

Reduced staff 23%

Change in Base Salary Over Previous Year (% of response)

Increased more than 5% 9%

Increased 3-5% 19%

Increased 1-3% 38%

No change 30%

Decreased 1-3% 1%

Decreased 3-5% 1%

Decreased more than 5% 1%

What is your annual bonus?(% of response)

Less than $1,000 13%

$1,000-$5,000 23%

$5,001-$10,000 15%

$10,001-$25,000 12%

More than $25,000 10%

None 27%

Has your location struggled to fill a position in the past year due to a

lack of skilled candidates?

Yes 56%

No 44%

MHL2015SalarySurvey

Documents

Transcript of MHL2015SalarySurvey