09.08.06
Annual MPO Salary Survey
Educated Med-Tech Workers Are Earning More Than Ever
While Feeling Fairly Secure and Satisfied in Their Daily Jobs
Even as the medical device industry tightens its belt in the face of pricing pressures and cost-containment strategies, its workers report feeling secure about their careers, according to a recent salary survey completed by Medical Product Outsourcing.
Perhaps this can be attributed to the above-average salaries med-tech workers are receiving. While the typical US worker in a non-supervisory position earned a little more than $32,000 in 2004 (the latest data available from The White House), 86% of all respondents to MPO’s latest salary survey reported earning more than $50,000 annually—with 34% in the six-figure range.
The industry’s innovation is being cultivated by a fairly young work force; the average employee’s age is 44 years. And it’s still a male-dominated industry, as the overwhelming majority of respondents were men. Job functions ran the gamut among respondents, ranging from quality assurance to R&D to sales and marketing—and, of course, production and manufacturing. Even a few company presidents took a moment to offer their insight. Most respondents are employed by OEM or contract manufacturing companies.
Those serving the medical device industry appear to be a loyal group, as the average length of time workers have been on the job is 6.5 years, with overall med-tech industry experience just about double that (a little over 12 years). Many could even be considered industry “lifers,” as 8% of respondents have spent more than 25 years of their careers working with medical devices.
Salary
Compensation
A Multitasking Group
Various national surveys have revealed that most employees are often asked to perform additional duties on top of their regular job responsibilities, and today’s med-tech workers are no exception. As employees commonly are asked to do more with fewer resources, it wasn’t surprising to hear that many respondents are responsible for a variety of job functions outside their usual parameters. One person commented, “We are a small company and wear many hats.”
While most respondents feel that their salary compensation is fair (if they’re not neutral about the subject), some still believe their compensation is not commensurate with their responsibilities. According to one offshore respondent, his company compensates employees according to the usual pay rate in that location rather than the employee’s actual role and responsibilities. Although this individual voiced frustration and subsequently received a 15% pay increase, he noted that the salary was still lower than the salaries his US colleagues earn (including those in less senior positions).
Gender
Region
Education
Pay Raises Are About Average
The national workforce is bracing itself for limited pay increases in 2006, with the average being about 3.5% of the worker’s present salary, according to Monster.com, which cited global economic pressures, fairly low inflation and modest job growth as factors affecting increases. In the medical device industry, more than half of respondents said they expect to receive a raise in the 3%-5% range—up from the 42% of all respondents who reported receiving a raise in that range last year. Just over 9% were lucky enough to receive a salary bump that was 15% higher than their previous earnings in 2005, but another 15% of respondents didn’t receive any raise last year. The good news, according to Monster, is that workers in the healthcare sector will most likely fare better this year in terms of merit increases than will most other industries.
Sense of Security
Type of Business
Frustrations None Too Surprising
Among the obvious culprits for frustrations on the job (internal politics, inadequate compensation, etc.), some of our respondents also indicated that communication issues, lack of troubleshooting tools, inadequate or inexperienced personnel resources and other issues are cause for irritation. Another concern is the move to offshore outsourcing. One respondent noted that his company is moving operations to Latin America. Since the corporate benefits are much better there than in the United States, he said, “US workers cannot compete.”
The overall consolidation of the industry has some people frustrated as well. One respondent described the “instability of customers,” noting that they are too often merging or being acquired.
On top of these areas of discontent, other sources of frustration include cost-containment issues, IT bureaucracy, over-centralization and poor accounting activities.