Publishers Letter

Is Your Lab Manager Smiling?

With this issue, managing editor Lisa Tocci wraps up her three-part report on our 2014 survey of U.S. lubricant industry salaries. We want to thank warmly the 465 anonymous industry executives who responded to our biannual survey. Thank you!

Starting on page 14 youll find our report on laboratory, research & development and technical managers compensation. All of the lab/r&d managers who replied to this years survey work for lube manufacturers, and they report an average salary of $129,390 (the mean was $120,000). This is up from $121,383 ($114,000 mean) in 2012. Fully 85 percent of this years respondents reported getting a raise in the past 12 months, a hefty change from 2012, when only 65 percent saw raises.

For the first decade after we began the salary survey in 2001, changing jobs correlated with higher pay in all job categories surveyed. But the picture has become more complicated. This years survey shows that the pendulum can also swing the other way:

Lab/r&d managers with five or more years in their current position report they average 19 percent higher salaries than those with less than five years tenure. Staying put has been to their advantage.

Sales managers with five years or more in their current posts also report higher pay – 8 percent more – than those with fewer years in their current jobs.

But plant managers bucked this trend: Those in their current jobs fewer than five years have leapfrogged ahead and earn 30 percent more than peers with more tenure.

Which reminds me to remind you to obtain the complete survey report if you plan to use the salary survey data in any way. There are significant differences in pay based on tenure, employer size, geography and much more, and whats relevant for you might not be covered our magazine story.

The complete 2014 Salary Survey Report is available now in digital .pdf format for $125 at the LNG web site: www.LubesnGreases.com/salary-survey/. If you prefer, you can purchase the compiled data by professional category (plant manager, sales/marketing or lab/r&d/technical) for only $50 each.

Lisa, Gloria and all our colleagues join me in wishing you a joyful holiday season and a spectacular 2015!

Nancy J. DeMarco

nancy@LubesnGreases.com