Know Your Worth

Salary Survey 2020

 Welcome
Have you ever been asked ‘what are your salary expectations’ in a job interview, or had to sit
opposite your boss and ask for a pay rise? If the idea of discussing salary makes you squirm,
you are definitely not alone.

At Samuels Donegan we had a pretty good idea of different role and sector benchmarks for
salaries and benefits, but we really wanted to go deeper with the most up-to-date and
definitive data we could get our hands on. So, we didn’t mess around, we just went out and
got it.

And here it is! The Samuels Donegan Know Your Worth Salary Survey 2020.

For our first survey we have taken a fresh look at the HR industry using real-time data from
real-HR people. We have learnt so much from our respondents about pay, benefits, bonuses,
gender differences and flexibility across the whole Melbourne market.

We loved crunching the (masses of) data we received and overwhelmingly we heard that
talking money is still one of the most difficult professional conversations there is.

We are so pleased to share our findings and insights with you now. We hope you will be able
to use the highlights from our survey to prepare for your next salary conversation, and
importantly, to see what really matters to the modern HR professional.

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone that provided such thoughtful and honest responses.

Evelina Samuels Sarah Donegan

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 $how me the money
Let’s get straight down to business, you want to know how your
salary stacks up against the Melbourne averages, right?

Here are the salary averages for every HR role

Organisational Development
$166,609
Diversity & Inclusion
$163,750
Generalist ie HRBP/HRM/HR Advisor etc
$146,866
Workplace Relations (IR & ER)
$145,132
Mobility
$140,000
Remuneration & Benefits
$139,460
Change Management
$136,916
Learning & Development
$131,573
Instructional Design
$130,000
HRIS
$122,516
Talent Acquisition
$122,330
Workforce Planning
$118,567
HR Operations/Shared Services
$109,340
Analytics
$96,000

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 $how me more money
Knowledge of average salaries, check. We’re guessing you
now want to know what the highs and lows are?

Here are the salary highs and lows for every HR role

HR Role Low High

Analytics $80,000 $105,000

Change Management $75,000 $213,575

Diversity & Inclusion $130,000 $190,000

Generalist ie HRBP/HRM/HR Advisor etc $45,000 $375,000

HR Operations/Shared Services $40,000 $275,000

HRIS $65,000 $215,000

Instructional Design $130,000 $130,000

Learning & Development $63,000 $270,000

Mobility $130,000 $150,000

Organisational Development $90,000 $300,000

Remuneration & Benefits $62,000 $352,000

Talent Acquisition $45,000 $330,000

Workforce Planning $89,700 $135,000

Workplace Relations (IR & ER) $65,000 $275,000

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 You’re not average, but this is
Industry by industry, this is how average salaries for HR roles line up.

Industry Averages

Mining $193,235 Telecommunications $142,943

Entertainment $173,187 Technology $139,636

Media $169,541 Education $138,050

Manufacturing $165,086 Agriculture $135,850

FMCG $164,548 Government $134,002

Infrastructure $161,468 Property $130,872

Energy $156,801 Other $130,527

Construction $155,648 Professional services $129,710

Banking & Finance $154,197 Healthcare $126,126

Pharmaceutical $154,100 Hospitality $124,740

Transport $152,049 Automotive $118,292

Retail $151,185 Not for profit $115,090

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 Where are the big hitters?
When it comes to a $200K+ salary, the top 5 highest
paying industries might surprise you!

$ $ $ $ $

40% 30% 27% 26% 24%

Mining Entertainment FMCG Manufacturing Construction

They might pay well, but do they care about pay equality?

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 Mind the gap!
Or should we say the grand canyon?

$
$
$
$
$

$ 11, 568

OVERALL AVERAGE SALARY GAP

That’s quite the pay gap between men and women overall,
but wait until you see the void by industry and role…

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 Equal pay, for equal work?
Still not here and still not yet
There’s nothing fair about a gender pay gap, and it’s bigger in
some roles and industries than others.

Top 5 by role Top 5 by industry

Workplace Relations $28,832 Construction $47,758

HR Ops/Shared Services $23,017 Manufacturing $45,698

Learning & Development $21,657 Telecommunications $39,626

HRIS $21,346 Automotive $36,690

Generalist $7,673 FMCG $33,916

“Did anyone pick up that

the best paying industries
have the largest pay gap?”

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 Up and up and...up! Who gets the most salary increase?
See which industries gave out the most number of salary increases over a five-year period.

PROPERTY
3.83
TELCO
AGRICULTURE 3
2.67 MANUFACTURING

3.59
ENTERTAINMENT
4 MEDIA
MINING 2.5
4 TRANSPORT
2.97
L EGEND
FMCG
3.83 HOSPITALITY
Top 5
2.70
Bottom 5

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 Wage stagnation is not good for anyone
Believe it or not, some people got no pay increases over the past five years

20%
of people in HR OPS/SHARED
SERVICES received ZERO
increases over 5 years

19%
of people in NOT-FOR-PROFIT
received ZERO increases over
5 years

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 Only 1 in 2 respondents are eligible for a bonus

THAT’S RIGHT

Only 50% of your peers are ELIGIBLE for a bonus

but it doesn’t mean you’ll get one!

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 A little bit of salary in my life, a little bit
of increase would be nice, but a lot of
flex-i-bility is what I need
Which industries offered the most flexibility?

95% 93% 92% 92% 92%

Energy Government Banking FMCG Professional

and Finance Services

% of people that received some flexibility

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 The winner of the most popular
flexibility option is…

FLEXIBLE START AND FINISH TIMES WITH

75%
of people selecting this option

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 Fact or fiction: Everyone gets flexibility these days
Not so fast...

WHICH INDUSTRIES ARE ABOUT AS FLEXIBLE

AS A PLANK OF WOOD?

25% 21% 20% 18% 15%

Infrastructure Construction Hospitality Manufacturing Automotive

% of people who receive NO flexibility

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 Talk benefits to me
“I want to do a volunteer day and eat some fruit, said no one ever…”

Most offered benefit Least valued benefit

1. Employee Assistance Program 1. Employee Assistance Program
2. Fresh fruit 2. Fresh fruit
3. Volunteer days 3. Volunteer days

If you are an employer, get ready to pay close attention to this next bit…

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 The people have spoken
AND THIS IS WHAT THEY REALLY WANT
1. Extra Leave
2. Remote Working
3. Free or subsidized parking

EXTRA
LEAVE REMOTE
RA EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA PARKING EXTRA
EXT REMOTE WORKING REMOTE
E LEAVE LEAVE
LEAV LEAVE WORKING LEAVE
REMOTE WORKING
PARKING
REMO REMOTE WORKING
REMOTE TE
AFR
R TEEXE REMOTE
WORK EXTRA
WORKING
WORKING EING
PAVRK
AING
EL WORKING A PARKINGEX TRAA
EXTR
EXTRA REMOTE LEAVE EXTR
EXTRA PARKING EXTRA LEA
LE VEE
AV
LEAVE WORKING EXTRA LEAVE
LEAVE LEAVE
LEAVE

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 Benefits – the generous, the average and the frugal
Which industries offer the most and least benefits

Top 5 Most Top 5 Least

ENERGY TRANSPORT
6.8 3.1
BANKING & FINANCE MINING
5.9 3.4
ENTERTAINMENT HOSPITALITY
5.6 3.9
GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTION
5.5 4

EDUCATION TELCO
5.5 4.1

Avg # per person Avg # per person

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 Who’s on the move
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

70%
of HR GENERALISTS
are actively looking
for a new job.

AND

56%
of people in TALENT
ACQUISITION are also actively
looking for a new job.

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 Clearly money doesn’t buy you happiness
Because the majority of the big hitters are actively looking for a new job

BELOW 100K 100 - 135K 136 - 169K 170 - 199K 200K +

62% 56% 59% 54% 67%

of people actively looking for a job

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 That was a lot to digest, but now you Know Your Worth,
how do you make your next move?
31% of you told us the most common way of finding a new HR job is
through a recruitment agency.

So, what are you waiting for? Contact us now.

www.samuelsdonegan.com.au

About the Salary Survey

The survey was compiled by Samuels Donegan using data collected by 898 respondents across the
Melbourne HR industry with 75.6% of females dominating our first survey. The largest role representatives
were from Talent Acquisition, HR Generalists and HR Shared Services and the largest representation came
from Banking & Finance, Not-For-Profit and Professional Services sectors. Thank you again to everyone who
participated, it gave us some incredible insights into our industry.

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