Dive Brief:
- While HR professionals are instrumental in setting salary for other workers, recent data suggests expectations for their own roles may conflict with what’s offered. HR pros on average expect to make $133,322, while the average salary offered is $90,725, making for a $42,596 gap, according to data collected by recruiting site JobLeads.
- The gap varies depending on the HR role, JobLeads found. Those in strategy and management had the biggest gap in expectations versus reality (a $50,635 gap), while generalists had a slightly smaller gap ($48,838). Those in services had the smallest gap ($44,509).
- HR overall had a larger expectation gap than the U.S. average, which fell at $33,332. This is a “particular irony” given the hand the HR pros play in setting salary for other roles, JobLeads said.
Dive Insight:
For the analysis, JobLeads drew from two data sources gathered between July and December last year: 811,000 active job postings across the U.S., Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany and France; and 245,000 user responses from platform members in those countries.
They found that while the size of the expectation gap varied by location, the vast majority of workers expected a higher salary than was offered on average. The global gap is $10,411, with American workers having the highest gap and French employees the only ones with lower expectations than the salaries offered. Britain had a small gap of $1,921, which the report characterized as “an interesting outlier.”
Cultural differences play a role. For example, French workers may expect lower salaries because they “often base their salary expectations on legally mandated minimum pay scales set by industry agreements rather than what the market is actually paying,” JobLeads said. American job seekers often make a big ask and expect pushback, a JobLeads talent acquisition manager said, while in British culture, “asking for dramatically more than offered can feel presumptuous or even rude.”
Expectations also varied across industry and job type. Employees in sales saw the biggest gap between expectations and reality — a likely result of factoring in commission, bonuses and performance incentives on top of base salary, while employers only advertised base pay, JobLeads said. Legal and finance had the smallest gaps, but they were still well over $30,000.
Similarly, expectations varied widely by position, with project managers having the biggest gap between expectations and reality at $35,645. Vice presidents came closest to alignment, with a gap of only $4,030. Only managing directors expected less than was offered, earning on average $8,640 more than expected.
While workers had a clear expectation of earning more money, JobLeads pointed out that more than half of job seekers don’t negotiate their salary. According to a white paper published last year, that has more to do with workers believing employers are not open to it than believing they lack the skills to do so successfully. But nearly three-quarters of employers expect job seekers to negotiate, according to previous research cited by JobLeads.
“The disconnect isn’t with hiring managers, but rather with candidates who don’t realize the door is open,” wrote Beata Stefanowics for JobLeads.