INTRODUCTION
PMI's biennial report, Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey, Eleventh Edition, is an industry-leading source of data for both project practitioners and organizations who want to stay current with the salary landscape for today's project professional.
The latest edition provides comprehensive insights from 32,000 respondents in 42 countries, with salary data reported in local currency in the individual country reports. New in this edition is salary information from five countries not previously covered — Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, and Russian Federation.
Greater awareness of how skill level, experience and certifications impact salary can give practitioners considerable earning power in a dynamic job market. And this critical data can help recruiters, human resources and compensation professionals establish fair and equitable salaries for project management roles within their organizations.
Report highlights include:
- The vast majority of survey respondents hold the PMP® certification (82%). Furthermore, survey respondents with a PMP certification report higher median salaries than those without a PMP certification — 22% higher on average across the 42 countries surveyed.
- Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) report that their total compensation (including salary, bonus and other forms of compensation) increased over the 12 months prior to completing the salary survey. About one-quarter (28%) reported increases of at least 5% over that time period.
About PMI
PMI is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession.
Through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research, we work to prepare more than three million professionals around the world for the Project Economy: the coming economy in which work, and individuals, are organized around projects.
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About This Report
The eleventh edition of the PMI Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey builds on features added for the tenth edition. The PMI Market Research Department continues to evolve this valuable offering to best serve the global project management community. The eleventh edition report is based on self-reported salary information from more than 32,000 project management professionals, bringing accuracy to the salary figures. The stratified random sampling methodology used for this study results in the ability to report meaningful compensation data for 42 countries.
Data Considerations
The validity of data in the report, as in all survey research, is impacted by sample sizes. In some cases, the level of analysis in this report results in a small sample size. Small sample sizes provide less reliable summary statistics, such as means and medians, whereas larger sample sizes result in more reliable data. Therefore, salary data are presented in the report only if at least ten individuals provided information for a given response choice. That means that no information (denoted by “--” in the tables) is shown in this report unless there are at least ten respondents for a given education level, industry affiliation, company size, etc. Although the number ten is an arbitrary number, PMI has used this threshold in previous salary survey reports. Furthermore, requiring such a minimum does ensure respondent anonymity and provides a greater level of reliability in the data. Sample sizes are reported in all tables by using the symbol “n”. Percentages less than 0.5% are noted by the symbol “*”.
Reporting of Compensation Data
Although this survey did include questions about alternative compensation methods (such as bonuses), those earnings are not included in the “salary” figures. Instead, earnings from other methods are included in the “total compensation” figures. Furthermore, only those respondents who reported that they are employed “full-time” are included in the salary data.
Salary data are presented for the 25th percentile, 50th percentile (median), 75th percentile and mean. A description of each follows:
| 25th percentile | The value above which 75% of respondents earned more. For example, if the 25th percentile for annualized salary was $60,000, then 75% of survey respondents earned more than $60,000. |
| 50th percentile | Also known as the median. The value at which half of all respondents earned more and half earned less. For example, if the 50th percentile for annualized salary was $80,000, then 50% of survey respondents earned more than $80,000 and 50% earned less than $80,000. |
| 75th percentile | The value above which 25% of respondents earned more. For example, if the 75th percentile for annualized salary was $100,000, then 25% of survey respondents earned more than $100,000. |
| Mean | Also known as the arithmetic average. The mean is more susceptible to outliers (unusually large or small numbers) in the data than the median. |
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
General Overview
Nearly three-quarters of survey participants (72%) report that their total compensation (including salary, bonus and other forms of compensation) increased over the 12 months prior to completing the salary survey. About one-quarter (28%) reported increases of at least 5% over that time period.
Those holding PMI's globally-recognized Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification report significant earnings increases in most countries included in this study. Among survey respondents, those holding the PMP certification report higher median salaries (22% higher on average across the 42 countries surveyed) than those without a PMP certification.
Median salary varied significantly depending on a number of key demographic factors, particularly the following:
- Country of employment
- Number of years of experience in project management
- Position/role
- Average size of projects managed, including average project budget and average project team size
Country of Employment
Median salary (when converted to U.S. dollars using normal exchange rates) varies considerably among project professionals from country to country as shown in the table below.
The countries where project professionals report the highest median salaries are Switzerland ($132,086 USD), the United States ($116,000) and Australia ($101,381 USD) whereas the countries reporting the lowest median salaries are Pakistan ($14,914) and Egypt ($13,933 USD).
Number of Years of Experience in Project Management
Expectedly, median salaries among project professionals tend to increase alongside their tenure in project management.
PMP® Certification Status
The majority of survey respondents (82%) have the PMP® certification. PMP® certification holders report higher median salaries in most countries included in this study; however, this varies widely from country to country. Those holding the PMP® certification demonstrate the largest salary increases in Philippines and Indonesia where PMP® holders report a median salary over 80% higher than those who do not hold the certification. PMP® tenure also plays a role. Among survey respondents in most countries, median salary steadily increases with the length of time one holds a PMP® certification.
Position
In virtually all countries included in this study, salary increases along with added responsibility. Once again, the rate of increase varies extensively from country to country. The most dramatic increase is seen in Philippines where the median salary increases from $17,247 (USD) for a project manager I to $24,524 (USD) for a project manager II and $36,167 (USD) for a project manager III.
Project Size
Those managing larger projects in terms of average number of team members and average project budget also reported higher median salaries in most countries included in this study. Once again, differences in salary between those managing larger projects vs. those managing smaller projects vary significantly from country to country.
