Tim Minahan of Supply Excellence offered us a great post on How to Assess Your Net Worth back in June IF you were a purchaser in the US, leaving Canadian purchasers out in the cold. Fear not, as reported in this month’s Frasers/PMAC NewsLetter, the 2006 Purchasing b2b/PMAC Salary survey was recently released and here’s what the numbers say.
On average, supply chain practitioners are receiving a salary of $66,357, up 4.2% from last year; male purchasers are still earning 17% more than their female counterparts, $70,089 vs $60,119; and Alberta is the best place to be with an average salary of $75,418. Furthermore, the most lucrative industry is retail and wholesale trade, where purchasers pulled in an average of $81,092, followed closely by natural resources at $80,709.
Here are the average salaries, by job title, for the last three years.
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
| VP Dir Net | $90,700 | $84,250 | $78,158 |
| VP Dir Purch | $87,118 | $80,068 | $75,182 |
| VP Supply Mgmt | $104,000 | $99,000 | $84,000 |
| Chf. Dir Supply Mgmnt | $96,750 | $91,000 | $84,500 |
| Dir Mtrls Mgmnt | $85,000 | $79,000 | $76,000 |
| Mtrls Mgr | $88,778 | $91,967 | $85,328 |
| Purch Mgr | $71,465 | $66,728 | $62,108 |
| Purch Agent | $52,218 | $48,428 | $45,415 |
| Sr Buyer | $58,779 | $56,583 | $54,951 |
| Other Buyer | $48,617 | $46,800 | $44,718 |
| Other | $66,162 | $66,600 | $65,215 |
The full report is available. How do we stack up to the US, the average buyer makes more $66 vs. $62 (adjusted to Canadian based on the average of the ISM and Purchasing Magazine surveys), the average Director makes less $91 vs. $120, and the average VP makes significantly less $94 vs. $160. This is bad news for Canada, already number two in the world in the talent crunch with 76 million baby boomers in the US eligible for retirement in the next five years, since you know the US compensation for supply chain leaders is only going to increase, making it even more unattractive for those leaders to stay in Canada when south of the border starts paying not 33% to 70% more, but 50% to 100% more.
The only thing on a Canadian company’s side right now is that it’s more profitable for a purchaser to start his or her career and gain valuable experience in Canada. So my message to corporate leaders is this: make an effort to slowly increase your pay scales to match US rates for senior professionals and keep our talent here – and over the next decade we can show the US how efficient operations are done Canadian style.