Quanta Corporate Citizenship A snapshot of CSR wages 16/06/2010
Acre has published its annual report on wages of CSR practitioners, and it provides an interesting snapshot about how the sector is operating:
More than a third of CSR practitioners have no budgetary responsibility and two thirds manage less than US$500k, the same proportion of those who work in teams of 9 or less people. As a matter of fact, less than a quarter have more than 3 direct reports. These four elements are good indicators that companies still treat CSR as a relatively unimportant issue.
The majority of in-house practitioners (56%) are individuals who used to work in other functions within the company, i.e., they had to (or are) developing on the job expertise, instead of arriving at their new positions with previous CSR experience. As a matter of fact, the current position is the very first contact with CSR for more than half of those interviewed.
Salary wise, the UK is where the CSR practitioners experience the lowest salaries. As a matter of fact, salaries are 20% lower in the UK when compared to the US, even though the cost of living in the UK is significantly higher.
More than a third of CSR practitioners have no budgetary responsibility and two thirds manage less than US$500k, the same proportion of those who work in teams of 9 or less people. As a matter of fact, less than a quarter have more than 3 direct reports. These four elements are good indicators that companies still treat CSR as a relatively unimportant issue.
The majority of in-house practitioners (56%) are individuals who used to work in other functions within the company, i.e., they had to (or are) developing on the job expertise, instead of arriving at their new positions with previous CSR experience. As a matter of fact, the current position is the very first contact with CSR for more than half of those interviewed.
Salary wise, the UK is where the CSR practitioners experience the lowest salaries. As a matter of fact, salaries are 20% lower in the UK when compared to the US, even though the cost of living in the UK is significantly higher.
Bonuses are also significantly lower in the UK than in the US and Europe, where the bonuses are, on average, around 50% higher, even though bonuses rarely exceed US$10k. Only 31% receive more than US$10k per year, and less than 10% receive more than US$30k per year.
The UK is clearly still playing catch up. By paying lower salaries and bonuses, companies are probably capturing employees in the earlier stages of their careers and also signalling that CSR is still not a top priority, whilst in the US and in the rest of Europe it is quickly becoming a board issue. A clear signal that the UK is not immune to this global trend, though, is that in the last year, despite the financial crisis, UK practitioners experienced salary gains of over 10%, while the percentage of CSR practitioners earning more than £80k has jumped from 12% to 17%.
The UK is clearly still playing catch up. By paying lower salaries and bonuses, companies are probably capturing employees in the earlier stages of their careers and also signalling that CSR is still not a top priority, whilst in the US and in the rest of Europe it is quickly becoming a board issue. A clear signal that the UK is not immune to this global trend, though, is that in the last year, despite the financial crisis, UK practitioners experienced salary gains of over 10%, while the percentage of CSR practitioners earning more than £80k has jumped from 12% to 17%.
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