BTN's 2025 Travel Manager Salary & Job Satisfaction Report

As it has each year since the Covid-19 pandemic, the average compensation package in 2025 reported by U.S. travel manager respondents to BTN's annual Salary Survey increased year over year. 

In what has been a turbulent environment within both the business travel industry and the broader economy, it likely will hearten buyers that on average they have been able to build upon the significant post-pandemic compensation increases, as demonstrated in prior BTN salary surveys. 

But enough clouds have gathered in the U.S. white-collar job market in terms of increased layoffs and decreased hiring to raise questions about buyers' future mobility and ability to command pay increases, and some of those issues are beginning to appear in survey results.

First, though, a look at the survey's compensation details. The average 2025 compensation package reported by 277 U.S. travel and procurement managers and executives was $149,979, up from $144,599 in last year's survey. That's an increase of 3.7 percent, higher than the 3 percent increase in the U.S. Consumer Price Index, a common metric used to reflect inflation, in the 12 months through September, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of the 2025 respondents who disclosed their compensation for both 2025 and 2024, they on average reported an increase of 4.4 percent year over year.

That said, another measure of overall U.S. white-collar compensation outpaced the rate reflected in the BTN survey. According to preliminary BLS data, the average weekly earnings of professional and business services employees of private companies in the U.S. in September increased about 5.4 percent year over year. Keep in mind that's only one month of data, and its methodology measures weekly earning as opposed to BTN's annual measurement, but it does exceed the BTN survey rate of increase.

In BTN's survey, 67 percent of respondents indicated their compensation increased in 2025 year over year. That's lower than the 74 who said so last year. And the 11 percent who said their 2025 pay decreased year over year is up from the 6 percent who said that in 2024. 

That's not a marked decrease in the respondents reporting a compensation increase, but it is a decrease, which is notable in an environment in which corporate travel demand has remained in flux for the better part of the year, still in aggregate levels below pre-pandemic figures. 

It's also notable because signs of softening in overall corporate employment are increasing. Executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which for decades has compiled and published monthly counts of U.S. job losses, last month said total cuts in October increased 175 percent year over year to a level not seen in more than 20 years. Job cuts year to date through October are up 44 percent from full-year 2024, according to the company.

"Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes," Challenger, Gray & Christmas workplace expert and chief revenue officer Andy Challenger said in a statement.

Additionally, according to the company, U.S. companies' planned hires in 2025 through October declined 35 percent year over year to a level not seen since 2011. 

To the extent that a softening job market would be fueled by macroeconomic uncertainty, it seems likely that the travel management position wouldn't be immune to such pressures. And an environment in which job cuts increase and hiring decrease could constrain buyers' ability to find similar or advanced positions at other companies, limiting their leverage to negotiate salary increases.

That sense may be snaking its way into survey respondents' view of their prospects. About 78 percent of this year's respondents project that in two years they'll still be with their current employer. That's up from 68 percent who thought that last year. Accordingly, 13 percent of this year's respondents anticipate changing companies by 2027, down from 23 percent last year.

Compensation Circles

BTN's salary survey, an annual mainstay since 1984, traditionally includes a significant gender imbalance in its respondent base, and this year's edition is no exception: About 76 percent of respondents said they were female while 22 percent said they were male. (The remainder identified as nonbinary or declined to answer.)

Just as typical in this survey is the gender gap in reported compensation. This year, the average compensation package for men in the survey increased to $166,731, while for women it increased to $143,880. On a percentage basis, the average salary for men increased slightly more year over year than it did for women. As such, for every dollar a male respondent earned, a woman earned a bit less than 86 cents. That's slightly down from 87 cents last year, which was down from 89 cents in 2023.

The gender gap persists in all subcategories of respondent data, whether by years of experience or company size.

Among the most experienced respondents in the survey, those with more than 30 years in the business, woman comprised 76 percent of respondents and averaged about $154,000 in annual compensation. Males with that level of experience averaged about $201,300. (Keep in mind that sample sizes in these and the following subgroups can get pretty small.)

The share of female respondents in the largest companies in the survey, those with more than $100 million in annual travel spending, mirrored the overall respondent set at a 72 percent share, and the pay gap persisted here too: Female respondents from these companies averaged about $205,000 in compensation, while male respondents averaged $234,600. 

Generally speaking, the relationship between company size and annual compensation remained strong, and working for a company that spends at least $50 million on travel annually seems to be a door to higher pay. The relationship between industry experience and compensation, while ascending, nevertheless was much flatter, perhaps an indication of an influx of new entrants with less direct industry experience but nevertheless with the skills that enable them to negotiate stronger compensation.

From a regional standpoint, those looking for the highest compensation this year should turn away from both coasts and toward Texas. After all, that's what many companies are doing. According to commercial real estate services firm CBRE, the top two metropolitan areas in the country for corporate headquarters relocation from 2018 to 2024 were in Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. And this year, the survey's Southwest region, comprising Texas along with Arizona, New Mexico and Arizona, sported the highest average compensation of any region, edging out the West, Northeast and Northwest.

More Pay Comes With a Price

The additional 2025 compensation that most BTN survey respondents reported in many cases comes with additional, or at least different, workload. To be sure, the traditional responsibilities of the travel management profession remain as prevalent as ever: Nearly every respondent said they have responsibility for selecting or recommending business travel suppliers, and vast majorities said they select or recommend travel tech, negotiate transient travel rates and manage cost controls. Surveyed categories of responsibility all were similar to last year's results.

The broad strokes of travel management may remain consistent, but the details change unceasingly. When specifically asked about changes to their workload in 2025, respondents most often pointed to three broad areas: data, tech and innovation.

At least 50 percent of all respondents said their focus in at least one of those three areas—travel data analysis and reporting, program innovation and new travel technology and services, and corporate travel booking technology—increased from 2024. These were also the only three categories to crack 40 percent of respondents.

BTN's survey allows for open-ended responses as to how travel managers' responsibilities have changed, and many pointed to data, booking, tech and distribution issues. Some highlights: 

New Distribution Capability. The International Air Transport Association's airfare standard gained further traction in 2025, although perhaps with less fanfare after American Airlines in 2024 reversed its controversial NDC-centric distribution strategy. But the industry's modern retailing journey continues, and several respondents reported increased time spent in 2025 on ensuring or expanding their organizations' access to NDC content.

When asked to detail the biggest change in their job in the past year, one respondent offered "NDC, how to get more savings out of travel without affecting traveler experience." Another noted "the lack of NDC ticket management." Another cited "managing new NDC offerings in our" online booking tool.

Travel management company changes. Several respondents cited as their biggest 2025 job change their organization's relationship with its TMC, whether that meant preparing a request for proposals for agency service, the implementation of a new TMC or evolving a contractual relationship. BTN's State of the Industry survey of travel managers earlier this year showed a majority of travel managers reported staying with their incumbent TMC for the past three years, and some industry consultants this year suggested American Express Global Business Travel's lengthy acquisition process of competitor CWT further delayed RFP activity. But several respondents found it on their plate. Some comments:

• "Taking on more responsibility to implement a new TMC and OBT."
• "We are looking for a new TMC and expense tool, so I have been working on an RFP."
• "Greater focus on TMC renewal and transition to hub service model."
• "My TMC is terrible. I have had to spend so much time with reports that are wrong, problems with travel booking, unused tickets, lack of support."

Meetings management. About 41 percent of salary survey respondents indicated they had responsibility for negotiating rates for meetings, which is down from 48 percent last year (although it matched the 40 percent recorded in 2023). Still, 21 percent of respondents reported more focus in their positions in 2025 on meetings management.

Several respondents noted meetings-related functions as the biggest change to their jobs this year. One was "building a business case for a Simple Meetings Management Program and now implementing this new program." Another noted "more oversight of meetings and events." Another cited "challenges with meetings technology provider" as their biggest change in 2025.

AI the Name of 2026's Game

Given the already substantial effect artificial intelligence is having on business travel functions including data collection and analysis and disruption management and the pace at which the technology is becoming entrenched into workflows, it's no surprise AI dominated respondents' predictions for what would be the biggest industry change to affect their jobs in 2026.

Fully 20 percent of respondents who answered that question simply wrote "AI" as that industry change and moved on to the next. Others offered more detail:

• "AI-driven booking systems that offer more personalized experience and available 24/7."
• "AI and how booking travel will be automated vs. using an OBT."
• "AI implementation and its continuous learning, whether it's for better or for worse is anyone's guess."
• "AI will seek to make amateurs into professional travel experts and will disrupt the industry into thinking that it is easily learned by machines."
• "Effectively using AI. Not getting distracted by the hype around AI. I think AI could be very helpful, but I also see it as a bit of a distraction"
• "I don't mean to sound basic but I believe on the reporting and expense side of travel, AI will become a huge advantage for us."
• "Keeping up with the evolution of AI with company support and willingness to take risks to evolve."

In the end, 45 percent of respondents to this question in some form or another volunteered that AI, specifically, would serve as the biggest industry change that would affect their jobs in the coming year. 

The rest offered a bounty of predictions for factors affecting 2026 change, everything from NDC to hotel negotiating strategies to the new partnership between Amex GBT and SAP Concur, which was announced shortly before this survey entered the field.

The topic outside of AI that was cited most frequently in one form or another was the state of the economy, its relationship to travel cost and the U.S. government's role in driving economic conditions.

Business travel demand especially in the spring and summer of 2025 softened amid economic concerns surround the imposition (and postponement) of a series of U.S. tariffs, although some suppliers, particularly U.S. airlines, spoke of an autumn demand rebound. Additionally, President Donald Trump issued new executive orders governing the screening of visitors and immigrants and limiting "non-essential" government travel. Additionally, the U.S. government shut down for 43 days this autumn, while the BTN salary survey was in the field. 

Several respondents simply cited "economy" as their projected biggest industry change factor, but others were more specific. One noted "government regulations changing the price of travel and our spending availability." Another cited "government and economic impact resulting in cost reduction for travel." Another noted "political and government instability (shutdowns, tariffs, etc.)."

Others were more critical of the U.S. government's role. A few cited the cuts to the United States Agency for International Development—USAID—by the Department of Government Efficiency, the initiative commonly known as DOGE. One noted the "extended government shutdown, and other irresponsible, unpredictable chaos by this administration. Cut to USAID affecting our grantees' and partners' travel spend." Another said that "we're a non-profit, and funding is crucial for us to stay in business. The USAID cuts have made this even more challenging." Yet another simply said that "the current administration is a threat to the industry."

Taking Your Temperature

In the best of times, business travel management is a complicated endeavor in an environment that demands close attention to a perpetually changing supplier set and perpetually advancing technology. And few likely would argue that 2025 was the best of times. It's possible that attitudes toward the profession may be souring a touch among its participants, at least according to the data in BTN's salary survey.

About 30 percent of respondents indicated they don't consider themselves well-recognized by their organizations, a figure that's up from 28 percent last year and 24 percent in 2023. (About 32 percent of female respondents don't consider themselves well-recognized, by the way, versus 19 percent of men.)

Meanwhile, 41 percent of respondents indicated they thought their salaries were low for their level of responsibility the same percentage as last year. There's a notable gender disparity here too, with 45 percent of women reporting such versus 25 percent of male respondents.