by Marcella Kates, MAPP, Inc.
MAPP recently completed the 2013 Wage and Salary Report, which has evolved over the last ten years and remains one of the very few reports completely devoted to the polymer manufacturing industry. This year’s company participation grew by 20 percent over the 2011 Wage and Salary report. It contains a comprehensive analysis of more than 50 different job classifications from plastics and rubber manufacturing-related firms which serve a variety of end-use markets. These classifications represent well over 16,500 hourly and salaried employees from over 200 US polymer manufacturing companies located in 30 states across America. This year, MAPP was able to provide customized regional reports in addition to the full report.
The largest respondent manufacturing process category was injection molding, which accounted for nearly 68 percent of the total responses. The extrusion process, transfer/compression molding sector and other processes rounded out the rest of the respondents.
In summary, the overall data showed a wage and salary increase in almost every job category across the board. A total of 89 percent of the job descriptions analyzed in this report showed this expansion of compensation. More importantly, 55 percent of the job descriptions examined experienced these compensation increases ahead of the two-year inflationary rate.
The job descriptions that experienced the largest growth in wages and salary over the last two years (15 percent or above) included certified machine operators, plant managers, chief inspectors, marketing managers/directors and sales account managers.
There were some job titles that were reported as experiencing negative growth or growth below inflationary rates in the last two years. These titles included the following: chief financial officers, delivery drivers, financial controllers, injection mold/diemakers, quality inspectors, machinist/CNC operators, production/shift supervisors, production schedulers, set-up technicians and TS/ISO/QS coordinators.
MAPP found that executives from 170 organizations (81 percent of the respondents) reported that they plan on hiring new employees in the next 12 months. These new hires are more likely to work in a plastics or rubber manufacturing company that provides the following benefits: Medical insurance to its employees (92 percent of the surveyed population); Medical insurance to its dependents (85 percent of the surveyed population); Life insurance (81 percent of the surveyed population); and Dental care (74 percent of the surveyed population).
MAPP has collected Wage and Salary information since 2003, so it now is possible to measure wage progressions/digressions of specific job classifications.
As an example, a general manager’s 2003 median salary was $84,536. By applying the US inflationary rates for the last 10 years, plus cost of living, in today’s dollar a general manager’s median salary would equate to $106,832.83 – making the rate for this salary increase approximately 26.4 percent. (See Figure 1.)
The MAPP Wage and Salary Report now can be purchased online at www.mappinc.com or by calling the MAPP office at 317.913.2440. MAPP Members can obtain this report or a regional report at a discounted rate. Non-members may purchase the full report online.
Source: US Inflation Calculator is a part of the CoinNews family of websites.
