The IEMA practitioners' survey 2013 reveals how environment professionals' level of IEMA membership impacts on their rate of pay
Figure 3 shows how IEMA members’ total earnings, including bonus, overtime and commission payments, vary between membership levels, while table 2 breaks down total earnings between salary and bonus – all non-salary pay is grouped as “bonus” in the table. As has been the case in successive IEMA salary surveys, the general trend is that the more advanced an individual’s membership level, the higher their earnings.
The overall spread of annual earnings covers a wide spectrum, from £21,200 for a Graduate member to £65,100 for a Fellow. At £46,025, the annual pay for a Full member is pitched roughly at the halfway point of this range. There is minimal difference between the earnings of Affiliate and Associate members, with median incomes of £34,775 and £36,000 respectively.
More than two-thirds (67.5%) of the 2013 survey sample are Associate members and so the majority of IEMA professionals command relatively modest salaries in line with their seniority in the profession.
By contrast, the proportion of Fellow members taking part in the latest practitioners’ survey and enjoying the largest incomes is much smaller, at 0.9%. Similarly, just 3.9% of the sample comprises Graduates, so there are correspondingly relatively few IEMA members at the lower end of the earnings spectrum.
The results show that there has not been much movement in total earnings for any membership level in 2013 compared with the 2012 survey. For example, last year the reported annual earnings for Affiliate members was £34,793, and £35,000 for Associates. This year, the respective incomes for the two levels of membership are £34,775 and £36,000, showing a slight fall in the salaries for Affiliates, while Associate earnings have risen by £1,000. (It should be noted that the 2012 and 2013 survey samples are not matched and so comprise different populations of members.)
Extra-salary payments also tend to increase up the membership scale, ranging from a median bonus of £1,000 for a Graduate to one of £16,500 for a Fellow. It could be that some senior-level posts – the level Fellow members are more likely to occupy – have a salary structure based on a higher proportion of bonus payments compared with more junior-level roles. Bonus payments for Affiliate members are pegged at £3,000 compared with £2,500 for Associates and £3,900 for Full members.
The 2013 findings reveal that bonus payments have at least doubled for the majority of members this year compared with the last. For example, last year the average bonus payment reported by Affiliate and Associate members was £1,200. This year’s results reveal bonus payments of £3,000 for Affiliates and £2,500 for Associate members. The median bonus payment for Full members has also risen significantly, from £2,020 in 2012 to £3,900 in the 2013 survey.
According to the latest ASHE, additional payments to employees – which include all overtime, bonuses, commission and shift pay – account for 5.1% of mean full-time gross weekly earnings. The 2013 IEMA survey indicates that bonuses were worth 6.9% of an Associate’s annual earnings in 2012.
