Salary Gap Keeps Getting Wider

The rich may not necessarily be getting richer when it comes to show management salaries, but there does seem to be more and more daylight between the rich and the not-so-rich.

According to Tradeshow Week's 2007 Show Management Salary Survey, the disparity in base salary between those who work for associations and those who work for for-profit organizers becomes greater all the time. According to the survey conducted by TSW Research at the end of last year, the average association show manager makes $58,394.74, 11.3 percent less than the average for-profit manager ($64,992.86). The disparity in 2006 was about half that, 5.1 percent.

The picture gets even bleaker for association managers when you consider the non-salary components of their compensation packages. While the average value of non-salary compensation for association managers in 2007 was $8,094.12, the average value of the package for for-profit managers was almost two and a half times that ($19,318.18).

There are good reasons for the discrepancies, said Michael Hughes, TSW associate publisher and director of research services. For one thing, less than half of associations (44.8 percent) offer their show managers incentives based on performance, while three-quarters (75 percent) of all for-profit organizers do.

“Most associations are rather small organizations with tight budgets,” Hughes said, “and many do not want their staff to be aggressive in terms of their sales approach to member organizations.”

Nevertheless, he added, there are benefits to being an association manager that cannot necessarily be measured in dollars and cents.

“While the survey shows that for-profits pay more than associations, there's more stability at associations and a sense of member and industry service,” Hughes said.

Across the board, show management firms kept their promises about the raises they planned to give managers last year. In the 2006 TSW salary survey, companies said they planned to give their managers an average 2.8 percent more in 2007. When asked in the most recent survey how much of a raise they actually gave their employees, the average was the same: 2.8 percent.

Perhaps then, show managers can believe their bosses when they are told they might get a little bit more of a boost in 2008: The average anticipated salary increase is 3.1 percent.

“That's the standard,” Hughes said. “(Employers) figure, what's inflation? And then they try to keep it around 3 percent.”

As in previous years, the highest salaries went to the managers of shows in the apparel industry, who averaged an even $100,000 a year, followed by government ($90,000), business ($68,590) and manufacturing ($67,237).

Growing a show may be one way to get yourself a raise. The average salary for managers of shows with 200,000 net square feet or less was $59,238, while the average for those with shows of more than 200,000 net sq. ft. was $72,406.

Respondents were asked to answer questions based on their largest shows. The averages of all responses are given here. Answers are for all show managers (association and for-profit) in 2007, unless otherwise indicated.