PPS Annual Salary Survey - 2019

PPS December 2019 Survey of Today’s Pricing Professional

Intro: The Professional Pricing Society’s December 2019 survey of pricing professionals received 798 responses from a
cross section of industries across the globe. PPS conducts surveys with the hope that this information provides a good
synopsis of where pricing stands as a career option while also providing a good demonstration of pricing’s status in the
business world. For more information please email [email protected].

Job Title Distribution

President, 1.3% General Manager,

Vice President, 2.9%

9.3%

Manager, 40.3% Manager
Analyst
Director, 26.7% Director
Vice President
Analyst, 19.5% President
General Manager

The Professional Pricing Society (PPS) has been surveying the pricing community since 1998 as a service to PPS Members
and the pricing community worldwide. We use responses to analyze the growth of pricing as a profession, and to
continue to develop resources to help pricers in the areas they identify as opportunities for professional development.

In December 2019 we again surveyed pricers and those in similar fields, receiving 798 responses from the business
community. Since PPS is the center of the pricing discipline worldwide, our survey results are widely used as a
benchmark for a variety of pricing queries: salaries, reporting structures, career opportunities, pricing software usage,
and key components of job satisfaction from both positive and negative standpoints. Our organization acquires survey
data as a free service to our members and those interested in demographic trends for pricing and related functions. We
hope that this information provides a good synopsis of where pricing stands as a career option and a good
demonstration of pricing and its importance within the business world.

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 1

Pricing Demographics

Three-quarters of our survey respondents work for medium-large or very large corporations: 38.7% work for companies
with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion (or equivalent) and 36.2% report that their company annual revenues are
between $500 million and $5 billion. A significantly sized, but smaller group, 25.1% are from companies with less than
$500 million in annual revenue. When compared to our last survey in December 2018, the largest group (over $5 billion
revenue) was larger, but the middle group (between $500 million and $5 billion) decreased by about 3%. The smaller
group, under $500 million in annual revenue, was also larger than the previous survey.

The number of employees in the respondents’ companies devoted primarily to pricing shows a mixed trend measured in
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees: 39.6% responded that their companies have fewer than 10 pricing people or FTEs
– this is almost 4% lower than our last survey. 35.3% report having between 10 and 49 pricers – an increase of 4%
versus 2018. 11.0% state that they have between 50 and 99 pricing FTEs, slightly less than our last survey, and 14.1%
say that their companies have more than 100 employees dedicated to pricing – this is slightly higher than our December
2018 survey. The most significant shift is a change from less than 10 FTEs to between 10 and 49 FTEs – therefore a
migration from our smallest to next smallest category.

Respondents from American companies reported an average of 4.72 Pricing FTEs per billion dollars in annual revenue,
while European companies reported an average of 5.05 Pricing FTEs per billion euros in revenue. Given the dollar-to-
euro exchange rate during the survey, these two numbers are almost exactly equivalent.

Salaries

Survey respondents in the USA reported strong increases at the Analyst level, moderate increases for the Manager and
Director levels, and significant increases for Vice Presidents. American Pricing Analysts reported an average salary of $
95,512 which is an increase of 14.7% versus our last survey. In the USA, Managers reported an average salary of $
118,810 (up 1.9%) and Directors earned $ 168,368 (up 4.8%). The news was even more positive for those higher up on
the organization chart as Vice Presidents surveyed claimed an average of $ 247,331 – an increase of 15.4% versus
December 2018 salaries.

In the Euro Zone, Directors and Vice Presidents had significant salary increases, while Managers reported smaller
increases and Analysts reported decreasing salaries. European Analysts earned € 58,373 which was 3.7% less than our
survey from a year ago. Managers reported € 90,831 for a 5.6% increase. Toward the top of the organization chart,
Directors averaged € 131,132 (up 10.7%) and Vice Presidents earned € 172,733 (up 9.7%).

In Canada, Analysts averaged CAD 70,531 while Managers earned CAD 110,625 and Directors claimed CAD 145,750.

Across all categories and regardless of title, the average pricer now earns $ 141,751 (up 4.6% over last year) in the USA
and € 95,303 (up 6.4%) in the Euro Zone. In Canada, the average salary is CAD 103,286 (down 2.7%) and in the UK it is £
84,821 (down 3.3%).

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 2

300 Reported Salary $ Thousands 2019
2018
247 2017
250 2016

214
203 207

200
168
161 158 153

150
119 117 115 112

100 96 83 87 84

50

0 Director Manager Analyst
Vice President

Figure 1: Salary Excluding Bonuses by Pricing Title

Salary Trends by Industry

There is a very wide range of reported salaries by industry according to our survey respondents. Those in Healthcare /
Pharmaceuticals ($196,889), Software ($177,545), Consulting ($172,500), and High-Tech ($164,574) reported the highest
average salaries. Telecommunications, Financial, Hospitality, Industrial, Services, Manufacturing, and B2B all reported
average salaries between $125,000 and $155,000. The lowest reported average salaries were in Transportation,
Wholesale, Distribution, Retail, and Government Contractors.

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 3

Salary Excluding Bonuses in $ Thousands

Healthcare / Pharma 100 120 140 160 180 200
Software

Consulting
High-Tech

Telcom
Financial
Hospitality
Industrial
Services
Manufacturing

B2B
Transportation

Wholesale
Distribution

Retail
Gov't Contractors

80

Job Title Mix

Senior Management (Presidents, Vice Presidents, and General Managers) accounts for 14.5% of overall job titles.
Managers are the largest individual group, followed by Directors and Analysts.

Reporting Structures and Experience in Pricing

More pricers report to Finance (23.4%) than any other function, but this is closely followed by large groups that report
to Marketing (21.6%) and directly to Senior Management (19.9%). The fourth most likely reporting structure is through
Sales (11.0%), while 9.6% report to a Product Group and 8.6% report to a Business Unit. About 6% reported a
combination of the above, or a different reporting structure.

Our respondents reported a range of experience within pricing. 7.7% claimed that they had two years or less experience
and 14.1% stated three to five years of experience. The largest groups were six to ten years at 27.9% and 11-20 years at
36.7%. 13.5% reported more than 20 years of experience in pricing.

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 4

Where Does the Pricing Function Report?

Business Unit, 8.6% Other, 5.9%
Marketing, 21.6%
Product Group,
9.6%

Sales, 11.0% Senior
Finance, 23.4% Management,

19.9%

Overall Job Satisfaction

This is the 10th survey in which we have asked respondents how satisfying their jobs are and about unmet wants and
needs. On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), pricing professionals rated their jobs 6.71, which was
almost half of a point lower than our last survey. There were significant differences in overall satisfaction based on job
title, with Managers being the least satisfied (6.49), but General Managers being the most satisfied (7.55). Vice
Presidents (6.87), Analysts (6.82), and Director (6.68) made up the middle groups.

PPS Pricing Power Index

For the first time, we asked respondents about their assessment of their company’s pricing power, to establish the
inaugural PPS Pricing Power Index. The overall average was 6.40 on a scale of 1 (no pricing power whatsoever) to 10
(complete pricing power) to represent a moderate pricing power assessment. There was some variation depending on
job titles with Presidents, Vice Presidents, and General Manager all reporting higher levels of pricing power compared to
Analysts, Managers, and Directors.

There was also significant deviation in the Index depending on Industry. Consulting (7.43), Transportation (7.25),
Financial (6.88), and Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals (6.75) reported higher than average Pricing Power, while B2B (6.03),
Retail (5.67), Telecommunications (5.64), and Services (5.60) reporting lower than average Pricing Power.

On average, respondents from the Euro Zone reported higher average Pricing Power (6.53), than the USA (6.39), Canada
(6.01), and the UK (5.88).

Other Elements within Job Satisfaction

We asked pricers to rate their feelings about certain elements within the profession. 87.3% reported satisfaction in
knowing that pricing is strategically important for their companies (this is up from 82.8% in our last survey) and 63.2%
find their careers challenging (up from 62.1%). 61.5% claimed that their jobs were intellectually stimulating (up from
59.2%), but more than half (53.5%) felt that they were underappreciated by their firms (up from 46.5%).

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 5

Training Opportunities only received an average score of 5.78 on a 10-point scale, which is lower than out last survey
(6.03). “Recognition and Acknowledgement Received from Employers” was rated 5.76; this was also lower than last year
(6.04).
The highest –rated elements of job satisfaction were “Communication within the Pricing Group” (7.33) and “Amount of
Influence” (7.10). Communication with other Groups received 6.43 and Career Advancement Opportunities decreased
versus our last survey (6.02 vs. 6.37 in 2018).
The most satisfying job aspect for pricers was Increasing Company Profitability (61.2% of survey respondents) and the
least satisfying was dealing with Corporate Politics, mentioned on 60.2% of all responses, followed by Being
Understaffed (40.1% of all responses).
Software Use
More survey respondents say that their companies are using pricing-specific software, but Microsoft Excel is still the
most commonly used tool for pricing. 32.3% said that they use Excel or Tableau primarily, while 28.0% said that they
use an outside company’s pricing, pricing optimization, or Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) software. 18.9% use an
internally developed, or in-house, pricing software and 7.4% say that they are in the process of changing software tools.
7.3% claim that they do not use pricing software and are not considering adopting software in the near future.
Other Items
When asked for qualitative answers to improve their pricing power and job satisfaction, many pricers stated they want
more training opportunities, better teamwork across departments, better staffing with fewer open positions, formal
systematic pricing tools, more support from senior management, better access to data, better incentive alignment with
Sales, and higher salaries and bonuses.
Many respondents also reported that their company salesforce is involved with pricing decision-making with various
levels of authority for discounting.
We asked a question about gender on this year’s survey. Of those respondents who chose to answer, 27% were female,
an increase from 23.8% in our last survey, and 73% were male.
As the only professional association dedicated to supporting the development and expansion of the Pricing profession
worldwide, we always encourage your feedback regarding your professional development needs, career satisfaction,
obstacles you are facing and any other assistance we can provide to help you achieve your career and advancement
goals. Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions, feedback, or any other inquiries.

PPS 2019 SALARY SURVEY 6