Quality Management Professionals play an important role in an organization. No matter what an organization sells, it needs a quality professional to ensure quality and professionalism in various processes, products and services to continuously meet the needs and expectations of the customer. How much are they worth on the job market? Let us discuss now.
American Society for Quality (ASQ) has released 2010 Annual Salary Survey recently. As part of the survey, they sent 56,052 e-mail invitations to U.S. and Canadian ASQ members. A total of 6,138 responses were received. Out of 6,138 responses, 5,743 responses were considered incomplete. The survey breaks down salary information, submitted by ASQ members, into 24 categories such as job title, education, years of experience, and geographic location. Below highlights the summary of the survey results:
Quality Management professionals with more than 20 years of experience earned an average of $94,756
Quality Management professionals with 10 to 20 years of experience earned an average of $86,993.
Quality Management professionals with 10 or fewer years of experience earned an average of $71,129.
ASQ Certified Managers of Quality/Organizational Excellence earn a higher average salary than their counterparts without this Certification. In the United States, the salary difference is around $7,000. In Canada, the difference is around $3,000
ASQ Certified Quality Auditors earn a higher average salary than their counterparts without this Certification. In the United States, the salary difference is around $15,000. In Canada, the difference is around $12,000
The top two ASQ certifications are Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) and Certified Quality Engineer (CQE)
QM professionals who have Six Sigma Master Black Belt training earn more compared with other Six Sigma certifications and peers who haven't been certified.
During the year 2010, the organizations the QMs work for used various cost cutting strategies including pay cuts, salary freezes, bonus cuts, Layoffs, Hiring freezes and reducing employer contribution to retirement funds during the economic recession.
To view the complete survey report, please visit ASQ's official website.
ASQ Salary Survey 2010: Average salaries of Quality Management Professionals