Compensation is always a tricky topic to discuss. Many people feel uncomfortable talking about money, and it definitely intersects with conversations about how we value ourselves — or others. And salaries in general haven’t kept up with the costs of living in many, many (all?!) areas so everyone is getting undervalued.

When we’re pivoting careers, it can be difficult to evaluate salaries because compensation analysis involves so many factors. It can be hard to evaluate what a “reasonable” salary is for a particular role or assess when a company is low-balling or exploiting a potential employee because your skills may fall into a few different potential compensation ‘buckets.’

And as any job market becomes more saturated — or during recessions — salaries can stagnate (or even drop). Then people who have been in an industry, earning a specific salary, suddenly find it challenging to match that salary when they look for a new role. (On the flip side, sometimes it’s a employee’s market too!)

In addition to these macro-conditions, some companies pay better than other companies and some non-profits pay better than others. So determining what is “competitive” can be challenging and often changes depending on which metrics you’re analyzing. 

It has become easier over the last few years to determine aggregate salary ranges as more states adopt — and enforce — salary transparency laws. This has been a game changer for career pivoters because we realize just how low salaries are in teaching in direct comparison to how our same skills are valued outside of teaching. There are still challenges with salary transparency laws, including when companies post a large budget range but have a smaller hiring range or post sales roles that don’t share on-target earnings. Overall, though, salary transparency laws have been eye-opening and allow us to gather much more information than we have ever had about what a competitive salary might be. 

There can be a risk in focusing entirely on the salary bottom line, of course. It can obscure opportunities where the benefit structure might be strong enough to compensate for a lower salary. Depending on your specific situation, a lower paying role might be a better fit financially if the health insurance is significantly better than your current role. (Or you might be in the opposite position if you don’t need a robust health insurance plan and can earn a higher salary somewhere that offers reduced health insurance benefits.) And, of course, company culture — especially at the companies that have 4 day weeks or generous PTO policies — may also outweigh a lower salary.

That said, “competitive” can have two meanings in an application context: it can refer to salaries but it can also refer to the number of applicants a role is getting. Whatever we think about the ethics of ‘fair’ or ‘competitive’ salaries, sometimes a company that pays less money will also receive fewer applicants — or will only hear from applicants who have less experience. This means candidates who meet or exceed their basic requirements may be more competitive so more likely to get an interview. If you’re new to a field or need to make a quick change, targeting these roles can give you an edge because they may be less flooded with candidates. And, as you’ll see from the salary data below, often you can quickly make up the salary difference by remaining in the field. 

When a company offers above-market compensation, they can probably get applicants who have the required experience they need and the experience they prefer (unless they’re hiring in a super niche area). While they may very well be open to hiring someone with less experience, they may also have more than enough candidates to interview who meet their wishlist. 

In today’s post, I’m going to review compensation data, drawing from the 10,000 data points I have in my database. My goal is to give you actionable information about what salaries companies have advertised over the last 14 months or so. (And, when relevant, I’ll let you know if we’re seeing salaries increase or decrease over that time period.) 

I hope this information helps you identify what a reasonable target salary is depending on your experience as well as gives you a stronger position to negotiate salary or other benefits when you get to that stage in the application. In June, I’ll be sharing negotiation strategies so you can take this information and put it into practice!

Table of Contents

Notes On Data Collection
Curriculum Salaries
Customer Success Salaries
Learning & Development (and Instructional Design) Salaries
Marketing Salaries
Product Salaries
Program/Project Management Salaries

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