Compensation and benefits managers are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, compensation and benefits managers rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 13% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy compensation and benefits managers are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Executive assistant | 2.8 | $62k |
| Bank manager | 2.8 | $132k |
| Bookkeeper | 2.7 | $46k |
| Mail superintendent | 2.7 | $80k |
| Logistician | 2.7 | $77k |
| Compensation and benefits manager | 2.7 | $128k |
| Recruiter | 2.7 | $62k |
| Restaurant manager | 2.7 | $59k |
| Account manager | 2.7 | $47k |
| Securities and commodities broker | 2.7 | $63k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are compensation and benefits managers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do compensation and benefits managers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as compensation and benefits managers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are compensation and benefits manager’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are compensation and benefits managers making the best use of their abilities?
Are compensation and benefits managers happy with their salary?
Compensation and benefits managers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.3/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most compensation and benefits managers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked compensation and benefits managers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
125 compensation and benefits managers
14% of compensation and benefits managers rated their compensation 5 stars
32% of compensation and benefits managers rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of compensation and benefits managers rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of compensation and benefits managers rated their compensation 2 stars
7% of compensation and benefits managers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do compensation and benefits managers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, compensation and benefits managers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.6/5. The majority of compensation and benefits managers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked compensation and benefits managers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.6 out of 5 stars
124 compensation and benefits managers
11% of compensation and benefits managers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
16% of compensation and benefits managers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
19% of compensation and benefits managers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
27% of compensation and benefits managers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
26% of compensation and benefits managers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as compensation and benefits managers?
Compensation and benefits managers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of compensation and benefits managers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked compensation and benefits managers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
124 compensation and benefits managers
21% of compensation and benefits managers rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of compensation and benefits managers rated their career fit 4 stars
27% of compensation and benefits managers rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of compensation and benefits managers rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of compensation and benefits managers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a compensation and benefits manager’s work environment?
As a whole, compensation and benefits managers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked compensation and benefits managers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
123 compensation and benefits managers
17% of compensation and benefits managers rated their work environment 5 stars
29% of compensation and benefits managers rated their work environment 4 stars
30% of compensation and benefits managers rated their work environment 3 stars
20% of compensation and benefits managers rated their work environment 2 stars
3% of compensation and benefits managers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are compensation and benefits managers making the best use of their abilities?
Former compensation and benefits managers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Compensation and benefits managers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked compensation and benefits managers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
124 compensation and benefits managers
10% of compensation and benefits managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
27% of compensation and benefits managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
23% of compensation and benefits managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
26% of compensation and benefits managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
14% of compensation and benefits managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars