How Much You Earn Depends on Where You Live

At a base salary of $39,800, an executive secretary would be competitively paid in Indianapolis, Indiana, yet considerably underpaid in San Francisco, where the average annual base salary for the same position is $52,600, or 32% more. These findings, from Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s Metropolitan Benchmark module of the 2003 Mercer Benchmark Database, highlight the challenges employers face when they have employees in multiple locations across the country.

These differences can create major compensation challenges for such employers. As the economy continues to pick up steam, employers will become more concerned with the competitiveness of their compensation levels, both locally and nationally.

The 2003 edition of the Metropolitan Benchmark module includes responses from nearly 1,400 mid-sized and large organizations in more than 40,000 locations, with more than 778,000 employees. The survey data are compiled for nearly 150 different metropolitan areas nationwide.

In general, the highest salaries for the positions in Mercer’s survey are found in large cities in the Northeast (including New York City and Boston) and in California (including Los Angeles and San Jose). The lowest salaries tend to be found in cities across the southern U.S., in states such as Alabama, New Mexico and Tennessee.

Pay Variations by Metropolitan Area
2003 Average Base Pay for an Executive Secretary

Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting, 2003 Mercer Benchmark Database.

For more information on The Metropolitan Benchmark module, or any other module of the 2003 Mercer Benchmark Database, go to www.imercer.com or call 800 333 3070.