PALM DESERT, Calif. – Credit union marketing professionals who work in the West, particularly California, earn the highest marketing salaries with a vice president getting paid an average of $91,000, according to a new compensation survey conducted by the Marketing Association of Credit Unions.
"It's not surprising that VPs in California earn the highest salary, but you have to remember they pay a higher cost of living than anywhere else," declared Kent Lindeman, MAC executive director, who detailed the survey findings during the group's 20th annual conference.
The salary survey, taken of 337 CU marketing professionals across the U.S. from November through April, represented the most comprehensive audit of its kind tailored to marketing managers, said MAC.
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Other surveys over the years taken by CUNA, Callahan & Associates and others, are narrower in scope and lack a top-down examination of all job levels and duties, said MAC.
In addition, results from most salary surveys remain in the hands of CEOs and top managers without getting passed down to marketers, said MAC.
Apart from the average $91,230 for vice president of marketing in the West and $92,000 in California, those in the Southwest were paid $84,167; for the Midwest, $75,938; Southeast, $73,290; $69,583 in the Northwest; and $67,750 in the Northeast.
Director of marketing positions averaged $63,929 in the West, $58,214 in the Northeast, $50,625 in the Northwest, $46,388 in the Southwest, $43,864 in the Southeast and $40,417 in the Midwest.
In discussing the findings, Lindeman said that when looking at years of CU marketing experience and its relation to salary, "one interesting finding was that vice presidents with only 1-3 years experience averaged $86,111 per year while the average for 4-6 years and 7-10 years was lower at $78,461 and $73,043, respectively."
This suggests, he explained, that many VP positions are being filled by candidates from outside CUs who may have previous financial services industry experience.
"This shows that credit unions are increasingly offering competitive salaries in order to attract quality talent to lead their marketing departments," said Lindeman.
MAC also collected data on the structure and composition of credit union marketing departments based on asset size. CUs with less than $75 million in assets averaged 1.2 people in their marketing departments, compared to 2.1 in the $75-$200 million asset range, 3.5 in the $201-$500 million range and 6.2 in CUs who listed assets greater than $500 million.
Among other findings, the survey showed that more than 70% offer bonus programs with the average amount at $5,079, representing 8.12% of salary.
In nearly two thirds of the respondents or 59%, the business development function reports to marketing with the remaining 41% reporting to CEO or the CFO/EVP. In a breakdown of who business development reports to, the smallest number, 5.3%, report to lending or operations.
Lindeman said the full survey report will be ready sometime this month and should be helpful to both marketing professionals in determining where salaries fit on a national scale and for CEOs in charting pay for their marketing staff. [email protected]
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