Salary distribution data for Europe and Canada
A number of folks from around the world wrote me after downloading our recent research on web analytics salaries in the U.S. asking if we had comparable numbers for Europe, Canada, and the rest of the world. I don’t have anything formal, but I was able to use a very cool product from Tableau Software to analyze the raw data and produce the following:
Keep in mind that the non-U.S. salaries were translated into U.S. dollars (USD) by the respondents so there may be some error introduced during that process. “Rest of World” includes Asia/Pacific, Mexico, Middle East/Africa, South/Central America and Caribbean. I had to group “Rest of World” to get an appropriate sample size (around 30 responses) so this group is not particularly useful but I wanted to include it.
A few things pop out at me from this data:
- Canadians are, by and large, underpaid compared to their U.S. counterparts, with 95% of respondents indicating they are earning under $100,000 USD annually (see figure below)
- European salaries appear to be more-or-less similar to those of their U.S. counterparts, but this is a function of how I have grouped salary bands together (see figure below)
- There is a pronounced difference in salary distribution here in the American West, with only 59% of respondents reporting salaries under $100,000 USD and 34% earning between $100,001 USD and $150,000 USD annually
Regarding Canada and Europe, here is an expansion of the salary distribution at the lower end of the salary scale:
Here you can see better how respondents in Canada and Europe are paid in the lowest salary band (under $100,000 USD annually) Canadians, 95% of whom report making less than $100,000 USD have a much less skewed distribution than European respondents (48% of whom report earning less than $50,000 USD annually.)
Both my son and I are sick today so I’ll hold off providing any more analysis but what do you think? If you live in Canada or Europe, does this make sense to you? Have you been reading job postings from here in the U.S. and wondering about how salaries being offered differ from those where you live? Is there something about business or culture that explains this data, or do you think it’s simply a function of the relative awareness of the need for dedicated web analytics resources?
Florian Pihs added the following ...
Hi Eric, to make things more complicated: It makes sense to use PPP to convert APAC salaries instead of using the quoted exchange rate.
benry added the following ...
Makes sense to me. Salaries in Canada are lower but also not being driven by the same market demands as in the U.S. I’d suspect that if there were a larger awareness of web analytics and the need for dedicated web analytics resources that you’d see these numbers more in-line with those of our southern neighbours.
Ewald added the following ...
From a Dutch viewpoint, this might make sense. In a lot of companies a standard working week is less than 40 hours (38 or even 36), I think we have more days of (up to 30 a year) and some of the side benefits (health insurance, child care etc.) are not part of your salery, but (partly)arranged for by the employer or the government. Would be nice to see what happens over here in the coming two years, as demand for web analysts (or related positions) is going up rapidly.
eric added the following ...
Illo: Since the respondents would be working online I’m not sure Internet access is a limiting factor but thanks for your feedback!
Florian: I had non-U.S. respondents self-convert salaries into USD so yes, there could be some problems with the translation. That said, I think the data is very much directionally correct, especially based on the email/feedback I am getting.
Scott: Do you have a sense of “why” Canadian companies aren’t placing the same emphasis on web analytics? It’s an interesting comment because I doubt that the Internet is any less a component of business up North than it is here in the South.
Ewald: Good point! One thing I don’t know is how “average” salaries compare U.S. versus Europe and Canada, etc. I will definitely be asking these kinds of questions in the future and will try and do better to gather information that makes this data more useful to non-U.S. readers.
Thanks to all of you for your comments!
Jacques Warren added the following ...
To echo what Scott said, and answer Eric’s question, I would say that Canadian companies tend to be more “sheepish” when it comes to investing. The little by little approach is the rule. It seems to be a part of our business culture. To use an analogy, companies here will put one gallon of gas in the tank to see where they’ll get, whereas American companies will fill it up and hit the pedal to see how far and how fast they’ll get.
So, what happens is that companies here invest quite little in applications, which is still all the budget they had, and call you crazy when you tell them that it’s time to allocate at least 1/2 position for a web analyst.
However, I have seen a few companies open a full-time position for a web analyst. They still pay less than the US though, because this is also a fact of life in Canada. We make way less than you guys do! ;-)
Patrick added the following ...
Hello Eric,
I think instead of looking how it compares to the average salary in Europe or Canada you could take cost of living into account (divide it by that). I’ve heard people make jokes such as “Does 6 figures still mean anything in NY?” and in the end it mostly depends what you can afford to buy with the money (after all it’s really just barter).
Jacques mentioned it was a fact of life in Canada that they made less money over there than you guys in the US, but I bet they also have to spend less on their cost of living (unless maybe they’re in Toronto?)?:-)
This might be particularly important for ‘rest of the world’ as some countries might have a very low cost of living (though you mentioned that you only included it so it’s complete).
Also, I’d be interested to know how the salaries compare in Toronto vs. ‘rest of Canada’ as Toronto seems to have the reputation of being a city where people go if they want to make money among Canadians :-). I could imagine salaries might be similar to the US or Europe there.
What really surprised me was to see salaries in Europe at that level, as I had often heard that there was such a big gap between Europe and the US when it comes to web analytics salaries..basically b/c we’re a secondary market here when it comes to these things (it’s not just true for web analytics, but also for SEO for example).
Oh and merry Christmas!
illo added the following ...
I’m curious about the input. How expensive is internet access in both America, Canada & Europe? The more affordable it is, the more lower income input you’d get…