Does Education Level Affect Retail Executives’ Salaries?

It's time for our next installment of coverage from Total Retail's Salary Benchmark Report. This week we examine how a retail executive's level of education impacts his or her salary (see the chart below). As a reminder, the Salary Benchmark Report was produced after an online survey was sent to Total Retail’s audience over a two-week period in late June. The survey resulted in 660 responses, which the analysis contained in the report is based upon.

While it’s hard to debate the importance of a great education, this chart may prove otherwise. The correlation between the amount of education our respondents have and their salaries may be a bit surprising to some. For example, while 68 percent of respondents who reported a salary of $50,001 to $60,000 have bachelor degree, 67 percent of those with a salary of $75,001 to $100,000, and 56 percent of those with a salary less than $35,000 have bachelor degrees as well. What’s more, a graduate degree may not be as valuable as one might think (at least in the retail industry). While the highest percentage of respondents who make more than $500,000 per year do have a bachelor degree, if you compare the salaries of those with bachelor degrees vs. those with graduate degrees, besides the very top level of the salary index, they’re very similar, and in many cases those with only a bachelor’s degree are making more than their counterparts with graduate degrees. Interestingly, 25 percent of respondents with a salary of up to $1 million do not have a college degree (albeit a small sample size — only seven respondents reported earning between $500,001 and $1 million).

For more of these valuable insights into retail executives’ salaries, 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.