INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS GAIN GROUND AGAINST CHANGING MARKET

Eighth Annual MD&DI Salary Survey

Steven Halasey

Introduction
Salary, Raises, and Compensation
The Employee | The Company
Conclusion |Survey Methodology
Order the Full Report |Salary Estimator

Device industry professionals who have been wondering what will be theeffects of such industry megatrends as health-care reform, buyer and supplierconsolidation, downsizing, and globalized competition need do so no more. Tofind the answer, it turns out, they probably do not need to look much fartherthan their pocketbooks.

According to the results of MD&DI's annual salary survey for 1996,during the past year device industry professionals received salary increasesaveraging 6.2%, and more than half of such employees also received bonusesaveraging $7890. Meanwhile, total compensation in the device industry grew at arate of 2.5% to an average of $83,400, besting last year's figure by $2000. Butaccording to the same survey, overall salary growth during the year was nearlyflat, improving by only 0.5%.

The story of what happened to device industry compensation over the past yearis told not only in the data compiled for MD&DI's survey, but alsoin the answers of respondents to the survey's open-ended questions. Asked whatindustry trends would affect their personal compensation during the coming year,more than two dozen respondents replied that their chief concern was "consolidation"of either device companies or health-care provider organizations--or both.Another two dozen respondents expressed worry about the effects of "downsizing,"and a dozen more answered simply "health-care reform."

While the direct implications of these megatrends for employee compensationduring the past year cannot be determined from MD&DI's survey, it isclear that respondents to this year's survey understand well their potentialeffects. "Consolidation in the industry," wrote one respondent, "willreduce percent of raises and bonuses." And another commented thatconsolidation will reduce the number of available positions, creating a "highersupply of qualified employees for smaller number of positions, reducing salarygrowth."

The following article describes some of the general results of MD&DI'ssalary survey for 1996. But the survey report actually contains much more,including tabular breakdowns for each of the seven job categories surveyed.Copies of the full report areavailable from Canon Communications.

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