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2012 Salary Survey

Salary Survey, 2011

The Information Architecture Institute conducts an annual salary survey to capture information on compensation, daily work habits and demographics of information architecture practitioners. Summary data, as well as open-ended responses are presented, helping formulate questions for next year's survey. The most recent Salary Survey as well as past years surveys can be found online at http://iainstitute.org. Please send any feedback or requests to info@iainstitute.org.

The 2011 IAI Salary Survey was conducted from July to December 2011. Members of the IA Institute, IxDA and sigia-l were invited to participate. A link to the survey was also promoted via the IA Institute homepage, newsletter and Twitter account. A total of 263 responses were collected. Respondents who did not enter a salary range were filtered out for salary calculation purposes, as was one obvious protest entry (presumably a disgruntled building architect, objecting to our use of the term “architecture”). You may download the expanded results at expanded results ( XLS Document, 237KB XLS 237KB). We remain a relatively small community, so we removed city data from the results due to concerns about the privacy of individuals in places where a small, easily identifiable population of respondents live. A list of cities is available in the full survey download ( PDF Document, 2.8MB PDF 2.8MB) and a narrower analysis by location is available by request.

Since respondents gave us a salary range instead of an exact salary figure, it is impossible to estimate a true average or median salary. In our analysis, we have estimated the median for various data points by taking the midpoint of the salary range a person selected and then averaging that figure for various data points, eliminating the "Over $200,000" and "Under $20,000" groups, which do not have a midpoint. We also present median salary estimates, based on midpoints, for comparison purposes, but it is better to read the survey results in terms of a percentage that falls within a range rather than thinking in terms of a specific salary.

DOWNLOAD THE 2011 SALARY SURVEY PDF

About the Information Architecture Institute

The Information Architecture Institute (IA Institute) is 501(c)6 professional organization dedicated to promoting the concept, craft and community of Information Architecture. Through education, advocacy, services, and social networking, the Institute supports a community of practitioners, leading the way in demonstrating the value of information architecture to the world at large, and providing a framework for members to improve their skills and enhance their professional standing.

Some of the survey findings:

Salary Ranges

The top five ranges clustered between USD$60,000 and USD$104,999, representing 51.1% of the total.

Using midpoints, the average salary was estimated to be USD$93,204. (Using midpoints is inexact, particularly since the top and bottom ranges do not have identifiable midpoints.) When excluding the top and bottom ranges, the average salary is USD$95,371, or 2.3% higher, than when these ranges are included.

Median salary was USD$94,999 both when including and excluding top and bottom ranges.

Salary rates appear to be just under $2,000 per year lower than last year's report.

Freelance Hourly Rates

Responses for freelance hourly rate ranged from USD$10.00 to USD$9,000 per hour. Two outliers were removed from this chart, USD$9,000 and USD$703, and USD$350, leaving the maximum rate at USD$225/hour. The average freelance rate (excluding outliers) was USD$90.58, the median was USD$85.00 and the modal rate was USD$90.00, with six people indicating that rate.

Note on Outliers: We eliminated the numbers above USD$225. Statistical outlier tests are somewhat more aggressive, as follows:
- Grubbs Test: Eliminates all numbers from 225 and up in this list. (http://www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/Grubbs1.cfm)
- Interquartile Test: Eliminates values that are more than 1.5 times the interquartile range (82.5) above the median (85)

One response that was non-numerical was eliminated from the study.

Respondent Quotes on Freelance Rates
"Many UX jobs are contract. For [the] past year, I’ve done contract UX work for very large companies. I'm paid hourly in those situations. I also come in through agencies … in those situations…. Contract work has its pros and cons, but it's been a good way to get into some large places."

"Rates are plummeting - jobs are now the equivalent to 3 positions in terms of breadth and 1/2 the level of depth they were 3 yrs ago … they really want interaction designers who do visual design and code and if there's time, user research, but much time cranking out deliverables rather than high-level thinking - and taxonomy used to be with design and now it's being absorbed by programmers OR … content strategy -- again, at least 3 professions rolled into 1 - going to do a total career shift in the next 6 months because it's gotten shallow, boring, and venal -- AND pay no longer rocks."

"My hourly rates have been stagnant during the recession and I have had to agree to lower rates for different kinds of work in order to win/keep contracts. NE Ohio is pretty depressed, so this may be more of a regional factor, but I recently got a contract with a company based in California and they negotiated me down on hourly rate. Right now I'm working more and making less than I was in 2008."

Salary by Region

The United Kingdom and US: Northeast tied for the top median salary by Region at USD$104,999. At 63 responses for the Northeast versus 9 for the UK, the US: Northeast median is more reliable. The UK also had two modes at $60,000-69,000 and $150,000-159,000 with the higher earners reporting more years of experience in the field though not necessarily a higher position level (junior, senior, manager, owner, etc).

The United Kingdom, US Northeast, US West, and Canada salaries remain the highest among all regions, followed by US Midwest and Australia and the Pacific Rim.

No responses were received from the following regions: Africa, Asia (except India), Middle East, Non-EU Europe, US: Alaska & Hawaii.

Region	Respondents	Inferred Average Salary ($USD)	Median Salary ($USD)
United Kingdom	9	110,713	104,999
US: Northeast	63	101,824	104,999
US: West	68	102,940	94,999
Canada	19	96,578	94,999
US: Midwest	41	94,249	84,999
Australia and Pacific Rim	1	84,999	84,999
US: South	26	77,307	74,999
EU (except the UK)	10	78,999	64,999
South America	4	52,499	49,999
India	2	24,999	24,999

Salary by Country

Once again our survey had an overwhelming response from the United States, with 81.8% of responses coming from the US. Canada, the EU (except the UK), the United Kingdom, South America and Australia and Pacific Rim entered much smaller responses. We will need to do better outreach in 2012 to represent non-US regions more thoroughly. We will need to do better outreach in 2011 to represent non-US regions more thoroughly.

Country	Respondents	Inferred Average Salary ($USD)	Median Salary ($USD)
Netherlands	1	$144,999	$144,999
United Kingdom	9	$110,713	$104,999
United States	217	$100,292	$94,999
Canada	19	$96,578	$94,999
Spain	4	$87,499	$84,999
Australia	1	$84,999	$84,999
Brazil	7	$61,666	$79,999
Germany	3	$68,332	$64,999
No Response	5	$24,999	$34,999
Colombia	1	$24,999	$24,999

Salary by Metropolitan Area

Responses sorted by metro area were higher in US, Canadian and UK cities than in other cities. All but one of these areas had fewer than 20 responses. Also, given low response rates in some metro areas, the data potentially could be personally identifiable; therefore we hesitate to report results for metro areas with low response rates.

Of the top 15 metro areas with 4 or more respondents, San Francisco had the highest earners, followed by Minneapolis/St. Paul, Seattle, Vancouver, Washington DC, Chicago, London, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Metropolitan Area	Respondents	Inferred Average Salary ($USD)	Median Salary ($USD)
San Francisco	18	$115,555	$114,999
Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota	5	$112,999	$149,999
Seattle	10	$109,999	$109,999
Vancouver	4	$107,499	$109,999
Washington, DC	18	$108,888	$104,999
Chicago	12	$101,666	$104,999
London	7	$110,713	$104,999
Boston	6	$111,666	$104,999
Los Angeles	31	$100,483	$94,999
New York City	18	$96,110	$89,999
Dallas/Ft. Worth	4	$89,999	$89,999
Philadelphia	11	$98,635	$84,999
Atlanta	8	$86,249	$84,999
Cleveland	5	$78,999	$74,999

Note on Cost of Living

Please note that a careful cost of living analysis should be considered when comparing one region or metro area to another, since living costs can be much higher in some areas than in others. Also when comparing one region to another, consider differences in benefits that are offered through the employer versus those that must be paid for by the individual or that are subsidized by government programs. In the United States, for example, while medical insurance is considered a benefit, the difference in actual cost of medical care can be significant compared to other countries.

Salary Increases

38.9% of respondents noted 1-5% annual increase in salary.
14% indicated a 14.0% annual increase.
3.5% noted a decrease in income.
29.6% entered “not applicable” which could indicate no change.
Respondent Quotes
"Since UX is such an in-demand field, my company actually gives yearly ‘normalization’ raises in addition to merit raises. E.g., this year all UXDs salaries were raised by 4% to keep our salaries competitive. We got merit bonuses on top of that. (Mine was 4.5%.) Our HR manager uses data from this survey to help her determine the normalization increase."

"After the 2008 economic downturn, my salary dropped … and I still have not returned to pre-downturn levels."

Salary by Age

The field is predominantly 31-45 years old, but 51-55 year olds have the highest median Salary at USD$124,999.

There is little variation between the 36-40, 41-45 and 46-50 year old groups. Each earns a median salary of USD$104,999, which is 23.5% greater than the 31-35 year old group.

After age 55, salaries drop by 24%. We looked at responses for gender, education level, experience level and years in the industry to see if there might be a reason for the drop after age 56:

There was no significant difference based on education level. Almost the same percentage in the 56-60 year old group holds a Master Degree or higher as the 51-55 year old group.
Gender was also not indicative of a difference: 50% of the 51-55 year old group is female versus 57.1% of the 56-60 year old group, but this represents only one more female than male respondent in the older group, and is, therefore, not a reliable indicator.
There was a slightly higher percentage of part time workers in the 56-60 age group, 28.6% versus 18.8% in the 51-55 age group.
The biggest difference was industry experience with only 18.8% of the 51-55 age group having less than ten years experience and 71.4% of the 56-60 age group having less than ten years experience.

It seems that the main reason for the drop in salary after age 56 may be attributed to older people transitioning from a different field and/or working fewer hours.

Age	Respondents	Percent of Responses	Inferred Average Salary	($USD) Median Salary ($USD)
21-25	15	5.74.0%	$72,999	$74,999
26-30	36	13.8%	$70,805	$64,999
31-35	69	26.4%	$89,696	$84,999
36-40	51	19.5%	$105,399	$104,999
41-45	49	18.8%	$102,233	$104,999
46-50	16	6.1%	$109,285	$104,999
51-55	16	6.1%	$115,666	$124,999
56-60		2.7%	$102,142	$94,999
61-65	2	0.8%	$89,999	$89,999

Salary by Gender

This year the gender breakdown was 52.7% female and 47.3% male respondents, nearly the same as in 2010. Average salaries were higher for males at USD$96,227 versus USD$94,608 for females. Median salary, on the other hand was the same for males and females (USD$94,999).

Education level for males and females was similar. 59.4% of women and 47.6% of men reported a Masters Degree as their highest education level. This is slightly higher for women versus 2010, but lower for men versus 2010. 34.8% of women and 37.1% of men reported a Bachelors Degree as their highest education level, a bit down from 2010 and reflecting a larger number of respondents pursuing masters or higher learning. This year, more men reported having Doctorate Degrees than women, 4.0% versus 0.7%.

Just under half of both genders reported their position at the Senior level, 46.4% of women and 45.2% of men. More men sit in Director or higher positions, 11.3% versus 5.8% of women. As in 2010, no women indicated they are at the Vice President or level; however one woman reported they are President/CEO level. Compare this with one male reporting in at the Vice President level and 3 males reporting at the President/CEO level.

The percentage of women working as Freelancers is 7.2%, similar to males at 7.3%.

Salary by Education Level

The highest level of educational attainment for the majority of respondents is a Master's Degree (56.2%), followed by Bachelor's Degree (35.5%) and Junior College Degree (3.3%). 2.5% have a Doctorate Degree. 94.2% of respondents have at least a Bachelor's Degree.

Respondents with a Master's Degree on average earn almost the same as those with Bachelor's Degrees, in fact, this year it was 0.3% less than those with Bachelor's Degrees. While the number of respondents holding Doctorate Degrees is very low, figures indicate that they earn 31.6% more than those with Master's or Bachelor’s Degrees.

One respondent indicated their highest educational attainment was High School and also indicated healthy in the USD$90,000-99,999 range. This respondent is located in high-paying, Western US metro area, indicating, perhaps, that with diligence, a High School graduate can earn a salary comparable to that of their peers with degrees. (A second respondent indicated highest level of education at High School, but did not provide a salary estimate).

A higher percentage of respondents have pursued post-baccalaureate degrees than in previous year's surveys, a continuation of a trend noted last year. Also, the relatively small difference between those with Bachelor’s Degrees and Master’s Degrees may also indicate that the higher degree may be more relevant than in the past for reasons other than pay.

Highest Degree Earned	Respondents	Inferred Average Salary ($USD)	Median Salary ($USD)
No degree	4	$109,999	$109,999
High school	1	$94,999	$94,999
Junior college	8	$76,249	$89,999
Bachelor's	86	$95,348	$94,999
Master's	136	$95,073	$94,999
Doctorate	6	$116,666	$124,999
No Response	1	$104,999	$104,999

Salary by Job Title

The highest number of respondents by Job Title was User Experience Planner/Designer/Architect (121), followed by Information Architect (56) and Interaction Designer/Architect (20). We also received responses from 10 User Researchers, 9 Consultants and 7 Usability Engineer/Designers and 7 who indicated Other. The rest of the titles received fewer than five responses.

As in the 2010 report, we split out the Experience Level (Junior, Lead, Director, etc.) from the Job Title responses (Information Architect, Interaction Designer, etc).

Of six respondents entering "Other", four entered a variation of "UX Director", presumably because they identified the "Planner/Designer/Architect" label with lower seniority levels. Because the Job Title question is not intended to represent seniority, we moved these entries to the "User Experience Planner/Designer/Architect" column to reflect a User Experience focus. The rest of the responses that indicated "Other" in the Job Title question were either new titles, such as "Manager of Instructional Media Services" and "Online Community and Social Media Manager" or titles that indicate a split between two or more disciplines, such as "Information Architect/Content Strategist".

Salary by Experience Level

Most respondents (45.8%) identified their position level as "Senior". The next highest in number were Managers at 15.6% of respondents followed by Juniors at 14.1% and Principals and Freelancers, both at 7.3%. Directors made up 6.5% of respondents and President/CEOs made up 1.5%.

Directors earned more than President/CEOs. This could be a factor of Director level positions being more common at large firms. President/CEOs all work at firms with fewer than 50 people. The single President/CEO respondent who works at a firm with at least 26 people had earnings in line with Directors at larger firms. However, the sample size of President/CEOs, at only 4 people, is too small to make generalizations.

Except for a slight dip at the Manager level, salary tends to increase with position level through the Director level.

We noted that our definition of Principal may need some clarification. Most staff categories we have seen in the field track Principals as experienced producers, with Managers or "Leads" tracked toward management tasks. However this definition may not be held by our respondents. A closer review of tasks performed at each Experience Level would indicate potential skill requirements and pay rates for each level. This is beyond the scope of this report, but would make a good volunteer project for interested members.

Almost half of all respondents (46.2%) have been in their current job between 1-5 years, a few percentage points lower than 2010. More than one third (35.1%) have been in their current job for less than one year. 16.8% have been in their current job over 5 years, an increase of 6.3% over 2010. Management and higher positions appear to require at least 8 years of experience in the field.

The amount of time in current job does not appear to have any correlation on salary, however.

Just under one-quarter of respondents (22.1%) have been in their current field between 1-5 years. Only 3.8% have been in working in the field for less than one year. Almost a third (29.0%) have been in the field from 5 to 10 years.

Respondents who have at least ten years of experience in the field reported notably higher median salaries than those reporting less than eight years in the field. Between 3 and 8 years of experience the difference in median salary is zero (Averages for single year periods between 1-5 years are progressively higher, though people with less than a year in the field show a higher average than those in the 1-2 and 2-3 year ranges, quite curious given that all but one of these respondents are at the Junior level. This could indicate an increase in the expected entry level salary for IA/UX fields.)

Median salary for those reporting more than ten years experience was 23.5% higher than those reporting between 3 and 8 years. Those with at least ten years experience earn 35.7% more than entry level respondents; and those with more than ten years experience earn 50% more than entry level. These premiums are lower than last year, but the correlation is slightly better than last year.

Management

Of 262 people who participated in the survey, 34.7% indicated that they manage staff, down 1.1% since 2010.

Fulltime Staff make up 63.4% of managed personnel. Another 28.9% are Contract or Temporary Agency staff and 7.7% of the staff under management is at the management level themselves.

Five Freelance Consultants indicated that they also manage staff.

Tasks Performed

Respondents were asked to rate tasks relative to the number of projects that require performing a particular task. The response choices included Zero Projects, Few Projects, Some Projects, Most Projects, This is All I Do. We acknowledge that "This is All I Do" is answering a somewhat different question and will change that response in the 2012 survey to "All Projects".

Most performed tasks include (not necessarily in this order):

-Strategic work (business models, high-level categorization, scenario
development, life cycle assessment)
-Wireframing/Sitemaps/Process flows
-Audience definitions/Persona development
-Usability testing
-Other user research
-Content management/strategy
-Project management
-Interaction design
We have found that 82.7% of respondents perform Wireframing/Sitemaps/Process Flows tasks and the same number of respondents, 82.7%, perform Strategic work, while 78.4% do Audience definitions/Persona development and 76.9% perform Interaction Design tasks. Of these tasks, 9.4% indicated that they do Wireframing/Sitemaps/Process Flows and 6.3% do Interaction Design exclusively. And only 3.2% perform Audience definitions/Persona development and 2.0% perform Strategic work tasks exclusively.

A full listing of tasks are available in the PDF version of the survey.

Benefits

The most cited benefits were Health/Medical Insurance, cited by 89.4% of respondents, 401K or Other Pension/Investment Plan (74.8%), Life Insurance Plan (73.9%), Flexible Schedule (72.6%), Family Leave (Maternity/Paternity/Partner/Adoption) (69.9) Disability Insurance at (68.6%), Professional Training/Continuing Education/Tuition Reimbursement (62.4%), Pretax Flexible Spending Account (eg. medical or childcare use) (61.5%), Bonus Pay (55.8%) and Conference Registration (50.4%). The predominance of medical insurance benefits reflects a largely US-based respondent population. In many countries these and similar benefits are provided and/or required by the state.

While Professional Training/Continuing Education/Tuition Reimbursement (62.4%) and Conference Registration (50.4%) were both up this year, fewer respondents receive Professional Dues Reimbursement (24.3%) than last year.

While 55.8% receive Bonus Pay and 42.5% get Personal Time off or Sabbatical Leave, only 26.1% get Compensatory Time, or additional time off. Check your local laws, though. Compensatory time off in lieu of pay is illegal in many areas. Only 8.8% receive Overtime Pay.

In addition to the 74.8% receiving a 401K or Other Pension/Investment Plan, 27.0% receive a Stock Options/Purchase Plan from their companies, 11.5% indicated Other Profit Sharing Plan and 41.6% have access to corporate discounts.

As for family related benefits, while 69.9% get Family Leave (Maternity/Paternity/Partner/Adoption) benefits, only 38.9% receive benefits covering Domestic Partnerships; 72.6% have access to a Flexible Schedule, if needed, 18.6% have access to a Dependent Care/Child Care/Babysitting Program; and 13.7% get Housing/Relocation assistance.

A healthy 28.3% get a Health Club/Gym Membership reimbursement, indicating that some companies are taking care of their employees' bodies as well as their professional development. Transportation/Commuting Reimbursement (23.0%) and Meals/Entertainment (17.7%) round out the physical needs of our respondents.

75.5% receive more than two weeks of vacation, with the majority, 38.5%, in the 11-15 Days range.

76.6% get an additional four to eleven public holidays in addition to their paid vacation.

Benefit	Response Percent
Health/Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance Plan	89.4%
401K or Other Pension/Investment Plan	74.8%
Life Insurance Plan	73.9%
Flexible Schedule	72.6%
Family Leave (Maternity/Paternity/Adoption)	69.9%
Disability Insurance Plan	68.6%
Professional Training/Continuing Education/Tuition Reimbursement	62.4%
Pretax Flexible Spending Account (eg. medical or childcare use)	61.5%
Bonus Pay	55.8%
Conference Registration	50.4%
Personal Time Off/Sabbatical Leave	42.5%
Corporate Discount Program (shopping, hotels, travel, etc)	41.6%
Domestic Partner Benefits	38.9%
Health Club/Gym Membership	28.3%
Stock Options/Stock Purchase Plan	27.0%
Compensatory Time (time off in lieu of pay)	26.1%
Professional Association Dues Reimbursement	24.3%
Transportation/Commuting Reimbursement	23.0%
Dependent Care/Child Care/Babysitting Program	18.6%
Meals/Entertainment	17.7%
Housing/Relocation assistance	13.7%
Other Profit Sharing Plan	11.5%
Overtime Pay	8.8%
Union Membership	2.7%

Complete question-by-question results from the 2010 IA Institute Salary and Benefits Survey, including tasks and benefits, are included in the Appendix of the full survey download ( PDF Document, 2.8MB PDF 2.8MB)

This page was last modified on January 30, 2012 04:49 PM.

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