Travel buyers' average compensation has risen 5 percent
since summer 2014, to $110,000, and their satisfaction with salary and benefits
lifted with the tide. Median income rose 6 percent to $103,000.
The findings come from the Global Business Travel Association,
which surveyed 285 U.S. buyers between June 24 and July 16, and appeared in its
2015 Compensation and Benefits study, revealed today. The research asked buyers
to compare their 2015 salaries to their 2014 earnings.
BTN's 2015 Travel
Manager Salary & Attitude Survey, released in July, also recorded a 5
percent year-over-year compensation increase, to an average of $114,769.
GBTA reports that those who hold its GTP Certification earn
8 percent more. Otherwise, average salary rises in proportion to the company's
travel spend, though there's a 30 percent jump within companies that spend less
than $10 million and those that spend $10 million to almost $50 million. Buyers
who work at the smaller-spend companies make an average of $82,000 compared
with those in the next tier, who average $117,000.
Buyers at for-profit companies earn $111,000, compared to
nonprofit buyers' $95,000. Those who live in the Northeast average $118,000,
and those in the West take in $114,000. The Midwest falls in at $105,000, and
buyers living in the South earn $96,000 on average.
Salary and benefit satisfaction stayed stagnant from 2010 to
2013. It lurched from 63 percent in 2013 to 72 percent in 2014 and made another
strong jump to 77 percent this year.