[Note: This data is from 2013 – find the most current public relations salary data].
Every few months it seems a study is published demonstrating PR is among the most stressful jobs. Stressful? Sometimes, but then PR isn’t a profession, it’s a lifestyle. According to a news piece on Ragan.com:
“For the third straight year, public relations has landed on CareerCast’s annual list of the most-stressful jobs in America. For 2013,public relations manager is No. 5 on the list, inching up two spots from last year.”
What is that stress worth? According to the same report:
“The median salary listed for PR manager is $57,550, which is a marked decline from last year’s $91,810. (However, it was PR executive, not manager, that made the list.)”
The data displayed is from PRWeek’s 2013 Salary Survey.
PR Trades and Salary Benchmarks
While perusing Twitter this morning, I found a credible infographic on SEO salaries and decided to look for a similar infographic on PR. PR trade publications including PRWeek and PRNews conduct public relations salary surveys. PRWeek’s 2013 salary survey, which polled more than 1,000 PR professionals, cites “momentum” in salary prospects:
“If last year had PR pros feeling a bit more secure in their career prospects – ‘cautiously optimistic’ was the prevailing sentiment described in our 2012 feature – they are feeling downright confident in 2013.”
The chart near by puts the median salary for an agency at $90,000 and $119,000 for corporate PR professionals.
PRNews salary survey is locked behind a paywall for $99.00, which is probably a good investment for a job seeker, however the publication has published news reports on slices of the data: Press Outreach Skills Still Considered Most Important in PR. While the report focuses on traditional skill sets, it also underscores newer responsibilities for PR professionals:
“Both corporate and agency PR execs are now being tasked with new digital and social marketing disciplines that were unheard of in communications circles just a few years ago, such as social media, content marketing and media buying.”
PR Salary Benchmarking Tool
Obviously, experience, education and specific industry are factors, so averages can be misleading. In searching for graphics on PR salaries, I found a pretty interesting tool from PayScale. The screenshot at the very top of this blog post is from the landing page, where readers can also enter in specific data to obtain a customized report.
I thought twice about giving up my information, including an email address, but finally resolved to complete the form. It asks for information such as location, responsibilities and reporting chains and then calculates a snapshot range. I’m glad I did because it gave me a personalized report I found to be quite useful. It’s a great tool for PR pros to calculate what they are worth.
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