Salaries - Compensation & Benefits

Salary.com

Sue Rainey

Compensation & Benefits

Salary.com

The following report examines the salaries of an office manager, marketing manager, and a payroll manager in Arlington, Texas and in Destin, Florida. Listed below are two tables comparing the 25th percentile, median, 75th percentile, and total compensation including benefits for the three positions in the two cities. Total compensation includes the following items: base salary, bonuses, social security, 401K/403B, disability, healthcare, pension, and time off based on the median salary. Benefits account for about 30% of the total compensation package. Benefits are a large budget item for the employer; and, employers need to communicate total compensation to employees when recruiting and when reviewing performance as the cost of benefits sometimes gets lost to the employee or recruit.  Employers need to look at benefits as income producing rather than just an expense as benefit packages create loyalty and improve employee morale.  

Salary Table

Salary Expectations

An office manager needs a varied background. A typical office manager develops administrative office policies and procedure, oversees records management and maintenance, reviews document preparation, and supervises office staff. The office manager coordinates office services with other departments such as accounting, marketing, human resources, and production. This position generally requires a high school diploma or its equivalent. Marketing managers have a more focused job than that of the office manager.

A marketing manager is responsible for the marketing activities for the organization and can oversee advertising and public relations. The marketing manager must stay on top of current marketing strategies and maintain ongoing relationships with a variety of marketing vendors. This position typically requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent.  This position pays significantly more than that of an office manager.

A payroll manager oversees payroll processing for a company. The payroll manager prepares reports regarding employee wages and benefits and ensures timely and proper governmental reporting and compliance. This manager may give input on strategic decisions on the company budget. This job typically requires a bachelor’s degree. The typical salary for a payroll manager is significantly greater than that of an office manager but is slightly less than for a marketing manager.

The salaries for the office manager were inline with what I expected. The marketing manager salary is a little less than what I expected, while the payroll manager is slightly higher. Educational requirements could explain the differences in salaries. The office manager job may be viewed as more of a support role, while the marketing manager may be viewed as having a higher impact on sales and profitability of the company. The payroll manager may be viewed as more important than that of the office manger because of the responsibilities of government compliance and budgeting input. The irony of the pay differentials is that in smaller companies, the office manager is often the payroll manager, marketing manager, human resource manager, accounting manager, as well as the office manager and the base salary is the lowest of the three jobs reviewed and requires the least education. An office manager needs a good understanding of accounting, marketing, human relations, psychology, purchasing, and staffing while having the lowest educational requirements and pays the least of the three positions.

Salary Percentiles

I was surprised in the distance from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile in base wages: $42,963 for office manager; $56,032 for marketing manager; and $53,201 for payroll manager for the Arlington market.  The Destin market had similar distances in base wages. There are several reasons that could cause the variances and the wage differentials. It could be due to what credentials the employee has such as professional certifications or licenses.  Job tasks assigned to individual employees can cause the variance. According to Flora Richards-Gustafson in her article 4 Factors That Can Result in Different Pay Levels for Employees Doing the Same Job, the reasons for the difference include education and experience, skills, length of time with the employer, and discrimination. It is illegal to discriminate, but discrimination still exists with women and minorities earning less than their white, male counterparts.  Salary.com cites eight reasons for the variances: years of experience, education, performance reviews, your boss’s influence of salary decisions, the number of people reporting to you, professional associations and certifications, shift differentials, and hazardous working conditions. Shirt differentials and hazardous working conditions probably would not be factors for the pay differences for the three jobs researched.

Benefits

The base median salaries in Arlington, Texas are about 8% higher than in Destin, Florida.  In Arlington, the office manager base median salary is $73,756 with total compensation including benefits totaling $105,724, for a difference of $31,968 (30.24%). The marketing manager base median salary is $94,177 with total compensation of $138,095, for a difference of $43,918 (31.80%). The payroll manager base median salary is $92,493 with a total compensation of $135,450, for a difference of $42,493 (31.71%).