From the $600,000 in total compensation reported by one Chairman/President/Owner/CEO to the $14,100 listed by a Machine Operator, employees in the US converting industry are certainly paid in a broad range of base salaries, bonuses and commissions. That may not be news, but the specific numbers are—revealed for the first time ever through Converting's exclusive 2006 Salary Survey.

Annually, we will be conducting a salary overview of two dozen job functions in five categories. Results from the premiere study are presented in the adjacent table and accompanying pie charts. The survey, managed by the research group of Reed Business Information—Converting's parent company—reflects the responses of 467 converting-industry members from around the country about trends in salaries for 2005.

The survey's value increases when viewed in light of how well the full spectrum of the industry is represented by the respondents. All of the major end-product fields—flexible packaging, tapes/labels/tags, unprinted rolls/sheets, and paperboard packaging—make up about 20 percent each of the total. Companies of differing sizes (based on 2005 revenue) are also well distributed with about 30 percent making less than $10 million/yr and an equal number with $100 million or more in sales. Headcount-wise, most respondents were from businesses with 100 or more workers.

The male-dominated converting industry appears to be just that. Only one-eighth of the survey's respondents were female. Industry experience, however, is spread fairly evenly. About one-fifth have worked for 10 years or less in the converting field, about 60 percent have between 11 and 30 years of experience, and another 20 percent have more than three decades in converting.

Whether a “cost-of-living” raise or a merit-based increase, 70 percent of those responding to the question received some kind of base-salary increase from last year.

For employers, base salary is clearly only the starting point for the cost of staffing. For employees, sometimes the benefits and perks that go along with a job more than make up for a base salary less than what could be earned elsewhere. Our 2006 Salary Survey also asked respondents what kinds of benefits their companies offer.

Not surprisingly, various insurance coverages ranked high: health (97.0%); dental (80.9%); life (77.4%); disability (70.7%); and vision (53.8%). In keeping with national trends over the past decade, 82.1% of respondents said their companies offer 401(k) retirement savings plans but only 29.3% have pension plans. And on the family and personal side, 43.4% said maternity/paternity leave is available, and 51.1% get tuition reimbursement.

Very few employees wear only one hat nowadays, so beyond all the salary numbers, we also asked some questions to get a sense of how converters' jobs are changing. A little more than half of the respondents said they've had no job responsibilities change in the past year, but about equal numbers each were impacted by new technology (21.3%); downsizing/cost-cutting (20.1%); promotion/movement in the company (14.6%); and re-engineering/staff development (12.4%). About 6 percent said they changed employers.