Salaries: The Ultimate Indication of Value

Whenever someone declares the "death of print media" in the higher ed blog world, usually a discussion about financial parity of the web and print in the budgeting process is not far behind. People try to use this as a measuring stick for how much institutions value the web versus their value of print publications. I've previously argued that this notion is naive at best. 

I think a better indicator is salary.  I touched on salary as a motivating factor for employees a bit yesterday and have been pondering it ever since. I don't think it's the only motivating factor, mind you - a great boss, work environment and buy-in to the core values of an organization goes a long way.  But let's be honest - we all have rent or a mortgage to pay and money doesn't grow on trees. 

Let's look at some background.  We all have different titles and job responsibilities so here is a sampling of national average salary ranges from Salary.com for the following positions: 

Web Designer

Web Producer

Web Content Manager 

Website Manager

If an institution truly values its web presence, then they will do their best to bring salaries more into line with national averages.  This is the only way to attract high quality employees.  The old adage "you get what you pay for" holds very true.    

Now, to be fair, I think that we all know that higher education is not going to pay as much as the corporate sector. I view it as a trade off for better benefits and job security (for the most part) and eliminating the cognitive dissonance of working for "the man." But I think reviewing our salaries within the context of national averages is very telling.  

As with many blogs I write, here is my personal story to illustrate the point: When I started as interactive recruitment manager at my last school it was a brand new position and the salary was pegged ridiculously low - mid 30s.  I could say that of the descriptions above, it was a hybrid of content manager and designer.  I found out a year later that it was so low because it wasn't pegged as a technology position at all - it was pegged as an admissions counselor position even though I had no caseload.  I fought them on it and got a modest raise out of it, but the situation really left me dumbfounded.  This is a place that would go on and on about how much they value the web and how powerful it is...but they didn't want to pay their employees to actually develop it.  That really showed me a lot about how much the institution ACTUALLY valued the web or the people they had managing it.  It was the first thing that really got me hemming and hawing about whether I would stay in that position any more than a few years.   

Fast forward another year and I'm interviewing for my current job.  In my first phone interview, I was asked what salary I was looking for.  In my head, I'm thinking "my salary is a joke now and I'm looking for a substantial increase" but I didn't think that would go over well and refused to answer, explaining that I had been forced to fight for my current salary and that their initial offer would really show me how much they value their web employees.  They respected that and a few weeks later, after an in-person interview, I was offered the job.   I had already made up my mind to accept if it was offered but the fact that I also got a very decent salary offer that was in exactly the range I was looking for put me over the top.  This was a place that wanted me and valued what I could bring to the web team!  It just starts it off on a great foot.  They don't have to prove to me anymore that they put value into what I do - they've already shown it.  So now, if I run into problems with other employees that are still stuck in the "print as the only meaningful tool" era, I know its not a matter of my office valuing or not valuing the web - it's really more of a call for me to present the case that the web is just as powerful and back it up with numbers.  Attitudes won't change overnight but I don't go home at the end of the day feeling like I'm viewed as a superfluous employee.   

Salary isn't everything, but it's definitely an indicator. Higher education is all about politics and like any good politician, higher ed administrators can pay lip service all day long to calm their uppity constituents down.  But they show their true colors when it comes to the numbers.  If they truly value the web, they will value every part of building and maintaining it - particularly the employees they've brought on to manage it.  If they don't truly value it, they are going to undervalue you and the work you are doing.