The total average pre-tax compensation for U.S. corporate travel buyers in 2014 increased 6.7 percent year over year to $112,000, according to a new Global Business Travel Association survey of 241 buyers conducted in late September.
The bulk of the increase stems from an increase in the number of top-earning buyers, the GBTA reported. Changes in the distribution of income ranges showed "minimal changes" year over year, but the number of buyers earning at least $200,000 in total compensation nearly doubled compared with 2013.
Unsurprisingly, the survey showed that buyers managing larger amounts of travel spending tend to earn more. For example, buyers at companies spending between $10 million and $50 million annually on travel earn an average income of $105,000, while buyers at companies spending $50 million or more on travel earn $143,000 on average.
Seventy-two percent of buyers in the survey indicated they are satisfied with their compensation levels, an increase of 9 percentage points from last year's survey.
Business Travel News' annual Travel Manager Salary & Attitude Survey, released in August and based on 248 travel buyer respondents, similarly found that buyer total compensation is up year over year. More than 40 percent of respondents in BTN's survey, however, indicated they were not satisfied with their salaries relative to their responsibilities.