More Reason to Maintain Your Credentials: PMI’s Salary Survey Shows Increased Earnings for Credential Holders

Knowing your earning potential is an invaluable asset when you want to leverage opportunities at your current job, invest in skills to raise your marketability and plan the next phase of your career. It’s also critical for organizations, which are competing for top talent as the demand for project managers grows.

PMI’s latest project management salary survey shows that despite the global recession, for 51 percent of respondents, salaries are increasing. The median salary across all countries, roles and experience levels was US$90,260.

PMP^® Credential Status Has Positive Impact on Earnings
The survey showed that the PMP credential has a positive impact on annual salary—a finding that varies by country.

In six major countries—Australia, France, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States—salaries are at least US$10,000 greater for PMP credential holders than for others who don’t have the credential.

The cumulative difference in salary over a number of years can exceed US$100,000. For instance, in the United States, the cumulative difference between the earnings of PMP credential holders and those without the PMP credential is more than US$102,000 during the time period between their third year of experience in project management (when one can first get the credential) and their 15th year (when experience starts to have a greater impact).

Background on Survey
Created and conducted by PMI’s market research team, the PMI Project Management Salary Survey—Sixth Edition measures salaries across eight major position description levels in 19 countries. The latest survey, conducted in 2009, reflects a greatly increased sample size for more accurate results, based on self-reported data from nearly 35,000 project management professionals around the world.

Represented countries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Some of the information found in the survey includes:

• The country with the highest median salary (US$116,625) is Australia
• Size of projects (in terms of number of team members and average project budget) positively correlates with annual salary
• Salary correlates with the number of years a respondent has worked within the profession. In some countries, the salary difference from least- to most-experienced practitioner is dramatic.

The full report of the salary survey features:

• Cross-tabulations of salary data by eight positions and 13 demographic variables
• Reported salary increases over the past year
• Expected salary increases for the next year
• Information on benefit packages, work environments and available global project management career paths

The salary survey country reports feature the same information as the full report for each of the countries listed above. Both the full report and the country reports are available for sale in PMI’s Marketplace.

Member Benefit—Online Salary Queries at No Cost
As a PMI member, you can access PMI’s self-directed online Salary Survey query. This service lets you compare salary data by position, PMPstatus (for certain countries) and geographic location.

Because of sampling constraints, salary information is not available for all positions in every geographic location.