Want a Bigger Salary? Get More Education!
I hear a lot of talk about what it takes to move up in the field of healthcare supply chain management (better salary, bigger title, greater benefits and more responsibility) to the next level of professional development. After reading the just released AHRMM 2010 annual salary compensation survey the answer to that question is clearly and indisputably – higher education.
The highest salaries reported in the AHRMM’s survey are being paid to individuals with master degrees ($139,870), while the lowest compensation was being paid to high school graduates ($60,580). What was surprising about this fact is that the salary gap between these individuals was a glaring 57%. Even when you factor in the number of years of experience, age, gender, geographical differences, and number of department staff, individuals with master degrees are still the highest paid supply chain professionals.
By the way, this survey also takes into account individuals who have the designations of CMRP, FAHRMM, CPM and CRCST behind their name. Yet, their salaries are still lower than individuals with M.S. behind their name. Another interesting statistic from the survey is that supply chain professionals that work more than 50 hours a week make more money, and working at an integrated delivery network or being a healthcare supply chain consultant (the highest salary in all categories at $144,938) can bump your salary up too.
What’s most interesting about this survey is that every year since 2008, educational levels have increased for supply chain professionals in every category (high school diploma to Bachelor Degrees) with the exception of master degrees. Master degrees actually went down according to AHRMM by 9.7% 2010, which may be a statistical error since they were recorded in 2008 and 2009 as 30.6%.
The silent facts of the AHRMM survey that is the take away for me, by any measure I can think of, is if you want to move up and be the highest paid supply chain professional in our supply chain industry the statistics clearly show that having a master’s degree is the ticket to a better salary, bigger title, greater benefits and more responsibility.
Robert T. Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare
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