Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 April 2007 2:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Indian marketing, finance and human resource executives earn less than five times the salaries earned by their counterparts in the United States, a survey of fifteen countries has revealed.

The survey, conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting showed that in terms of annual total cash, Indians received $62,721 (finance), $48,810 (marketing), and $57,053 (human resource) as against $315,800, $266,000, and $241,700 respectively earned by their American counterparts. The basic salary in these fields in the US is $248,700, $205,000, and $190,000 as against $55,652, $42,824, and $55,790 in India.

The 15-country analysis is drawn from a larger Mercer survey, the 2007 Global Pay Summary which provides base salary and total cash compensation for 50 job positions in 50 countries worldwide. More than 2,300 organizations responded to the survey. The benchmark data is used by multinational organizations to set pay levels for employees globally.

US-based finance directors are the highest paid, earning base pay of $248,700 on average, followed by those in the UK and Canada, who receive around $201,500 and $190,900, respectively. Their counterparts in Germany, Hong Kong and Brazil also earn high base pay at $170,000, $164,300 and $161,200, respectively.

Annual total cash for finance directors follows the same pattern as base pay. US-based finance directors are the highest paid, earning annual total cash of $315,800 on average, followed by those in the UK and Canada, who receive approximately $261,200 and $249,100, respectively.

In Asia, South Korean based finance directors are the highest earners, followed by Hong Kong Singapore and Japan, with base pay at $179,000, $164,300, $137,600 and $131,600.
At the lower end of the spectrum, finance directors in Hungary and India receive less than half of the 15-country average for this position, earning approximately $60,000 and $55,700, respectively. Average base pay for this position in China - Shanghai is $75,200.

Base pay for marketing directors ranges between $205,000 in the US and $42,800 in India. Marketing directors in the US are followed by those in the UK and Germany, who are paid around $189,700 and $162,400, respectively.

The highest paying country for marketing directors in Asia is South Korea, with an average base pay of $176,200. Hong Kong and Japan are in a similar range to each other, paying $136,200 and $132,000 respectively. Singaporean marketing director can expect an average base pay of $121,400 slightly behind the above mentioned Asian countries.

Marketing directors in the US also receive the most annual total cash, followed by those in the UK, Germany and Brazil.

The HR director is the lowest paid role of the three positions covered. The best-paid HR directors are found in the US, the UK and Germany, where employees can earn average base pay of $190,000, $172,400 and $168,000, respectively.

The best-paid HR directors in Asia are located in South Korea and Hong Kong, where their average base-pay is $175,800 and 157,400 respectively. Singapore at $131,800 and Japan at $129,100 also have relatively high base-pay compared to other countries in Asia, The US also leads in total cash compensation of HR directors at $241,700, followed by Brazil at $228,000 and Germany at $224,500. Hong Kong and Japan also lead total cash for Asia with Hong Kong at $205,700 and South Korea at $201,600.