New report finds median IRO salary stands at $100,000-$149,000, while a fifth of team members want to run their own IR department
This is an edited version of IR Magazine Week, IR Magazine's weekly newsletter. To receive the newsletter, please register here.
For many, the New Year brings with it thoughts of a job switch. You can understand the rationale: it’s a time when people traditionally focus on fresh starts and new challenges. Importantly, they are also within touching distance of their annual bonus.
One recruitment firm dubs the first day back after the December holidays ‘Massive Monday’ due to the huge number of job ads and applications that pass through its systems. Another just completed a survey of 1,000 workers that found one in five will be polishing their CV and going on a job hunt.
If you’re tinkering with your LinkedIn profile in anticipation of a move, let me share with you some of the findings from a new report into careers and pay, produced by IR Magazine and Bloomberg. Based on a survey of more than 750 IR professionals, it contains information on salaries, bonuses, previous roles and future plans.
First of all let’s look at average salaries. When you consider all respondents globally, those at IRO level receive a median salary of $100,000-$149,000, while department heads get $150,000-$199,999.
Looking at the results by region, there is a clear trend for North American respondents to be better paid than their European counterparts. For example, more than half of IR heads in North America receive a salary of $200,000 or more, compared with roughly a quarter of those in Europe.
The survey also finds a pronounced, if not unexpected, difference between the salaries of IROs with corporate backgrounds and those with capital markets ones. The former take home a median salary of $75,000-$99,999; for the latter, it’s $100,000-$149,999.
Turning to career paths, the report explores what respondents would like to do next (or whether they are content in their current role). Understandably, there is a big difference between those at IRO level and department heads. For IROs, the most popular next step – targeted by 21 percent – is a position as head of IR. The next-most popular option is to maintain the same role (18 percent), followed by a position in strategy (13 percent).
Among IR chiefs, on the other hand, 25 percent are happy to stay in the same role while a fifth are keen on a move up to CFO. Even though a move to the C-suite can be a challenging switch to pull off for an IR professional, clearly many heads of IR view this as their preferred career path.
Best of luck to those of you targeting a move this year. For more information on the report, please follow this link.
