The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: Earnings for sales jobs hit a snag in Q1 2012, falling 0.3 percent from the previous quarter. Pay trends for sales jobs have been up and down since the end of the recession, so this drop does not guarantee a further drop in Q2.

2007-2011: 2007 was a great year for wages in the sales job category, with earnings rising nearly 5 percent over 2006. Unfortunately, things turned sour in 2008, as wages stayed flat, at best. In fact, this job category is one of the few to effectively have incomes turn down along with the official beginning of the recession at the end of 2007. Early 2009 saw wages decline sharply, falling about 3 percent from their Q4 2008 peak. They recovered a bit, but basically remained unchanged from mid-2009 through the end of 2011.

Since earnings for salespeople usually have a large component of commission, flat wages mean it is not getting easier to make deals and achieve sales goals.

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Sales (SOC Codes 11-2022.00 Sales Managers; 41-1012.00 First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers; 41-3000.00 Sales Representatives, Services; 41-4000.00 Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing; 41-9000.00 Other Sales and Related Workers) jobs focus on closing the deal and bringing in the money. In addition to its obvious members, like non-retail sales representatives and agents of all types, this category also includes models, product demonstrators, and sales engineers. These workers are found in almost every industry.

The SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) system is used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The PayScale Index tracks quarterly changes in total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees in the United States. In addition to a national index, it includes separate indices for specific industries, metropolitan areas, job categories, and company sizes. The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

See full methodology for compensation trend reports.

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