Does Experience Impact Financial Benefits Received?
Our coverage of Total Retail’s first annual Salary Benchmark Report continues this week as we examine what impact, if any, experience level has on the financial benefits that retails executives receive from their employers. As a reminder, the Salary Benchmark Report was produced based upon the responses to an online survey that was sent to Total Retail’s audience over a two-week period. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their salaries, benefits (financial and non-financial), opinions on their career paths and compensation fairness, as well as demographic information. The survey resulted in 660 responses.
The chart below represents respondents’ answers to the following question: Is there a bonus structure and/or financial benefits offered at your company? The data then was segmented based on the number of years of professional experience per each respondent. (Click on the chart below for an expanded view.)
As one might expect, the more tenured the retail executive, the more likely they are to receive financial benefits from their company. For each financial benefit listed, those with the most experience in the retail industry (20-plus years) are most likely to receive them.
Consider that more than a third (39 percent) of all survey respondents who receive or are scheduled to receive a retirement annuity (i.e., a pension) have been working in the retail industry for 20 years or more. That makes sense considering that pensions, once a common benefit offered to employees, have all but gone by the wayside in recent years. It figures that older, more experienced employees would be grandfathered into a company’s pension plan, even in the likely event that the pension plan is no longer offered to new hires. In fact, just 6 percent of all survey respondents said they’re going to receive a pension upon retirement.
The most commonly received financial benefit among respondents is a matched retirement fund (401k), with 59 percent of respondents saying their company offers such a benefit. Yet this benefit may only come with a certain amount of time served at the company. Just 5 percent of employees that have been in the industry for less than two years report having a company-matched 401k.
For more of these valuable insights into retail executives’ compensation packages, download Total Retail’s Salary Benchmark Report today! This comprehensive research report can help you maximize your earning potential, as well as enable employers to benchmark their compensation packages against the rest of the marketplace — a critical factor in retaining valuable executive talent.
