Are Salaries Set to Rise?

They are according to the ninth annual Plastics Salary and Trends Survey conducted by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and Gros Executive Recruiters. While pay raises are still scarce, the job scare has ended, and this survey indicates that a change is inevitable, according to Dennis Gros, president of Gros Executive Recruiter.
 
Conducted during the past two months, the survey gathered responses from 2,144 plastics professionals about their compensation in 2012 and their outlook for 2013. Slightly over 77% of employees said they expect an increase in their base salary this year, and the share of employers who expected employee salaries to increase was even higher—some 82%.  
 
Compensation in the plastics industry decreased slightly last year. While the survey showed a total average compensation in calendar year 2012 of $110,325, the corresponding figures for 2011 and 2010 were  $112,380 and $111,124, respectively. “Our statisticians assure us that this slight decrease is a marginal effect possibly due to a larger sample size,” says Gros, noting that there were 50% more respondents to this latest survey than for the previous one.
 
“People are optimistic,”  Gros notes. “Overwhelmingly, workers feel increasingly secure that their jobs will exist twelve months from now.  The job market and the available talent are closer to balance now, compared to any point during the past five years.”  
 
“There will be a continuation of growth opportunities over the next several years in the plastics industry,” reports Willem De Vos, CEO of SPE. “We will continue to see a healthy turn in the plastics industry, especially in the United States.”
 
A detailed report of the survey will be available in the July/August issue of the SPE magazine Plastics Engineering.