2003 IFT Membership & Employment Salary Survey

Median salaries for IFT members continue to increase, reaching $73,150, while membership demographics and employment status remain essentially unchanged.

Food Technology Magazine | Article

Neil Mermelstein

Neil H. Mermelstein

DUE TO THE SIZE AND AMOUNT OF GRAPHICS USED IN THIS ARTICLE, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT YOU DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION FOR BETTER USEABLITY.

Members of the Institute of Food Technologists earned a median salary of $73,150 in late 2003, a 12.5% increase from the $65,000 in 1999, according to the results of a recent IFT Membership Employment & Salary Survey.

IFT is a nonprofit professional scientific society whose 26,000 members worldwide are active in all aspects of the food field, including industry, government, and academia. IFT has conducted a survey of salaries and employment status among its members in the United States periodically over the past four decades and every two years since 1993, with the exception of 2001 when it conducted a Starting Salary Survey instead. The previous surveys were conducted by mail, but the Starting Salary Survey and the present survey were conducted electronically. For the current survey, an e-mail invitation to participate was sent in November 2003 to the 14,704 IFT Members and Professional Members in the U.S. who had Internet access. The e-mail message provided instructions on how to access a 32-question survey on the Internet.

The results were kept completely anonymous and confidential, and all returns were tabulated by Data-Lab Corp, Niles, Ill. By the cutoff date, 3,934 responses from 13,667 delivered questionnaires had been received, for a 28.8% return.

This article reports summary results in three sections—IFT membership demographics, employment data, and median salary data. The salary data are provided only for full-time employees and base sizes of 10 or more respondents. Illustrations are not drawn to scale, and percentages may add up to more than 100% because of rounding.

Graph 1: Members are predominantly men, but members under age 30 are predominantly women.

Graph 2: Most of the members are under age 50.

Graph 3: Members are predominantly white.

Graph 5: Slightly more than half of the respondents have advanced degrees.

Graph 6: More of the men than the women have advanced degrees.

Graph 7: More of the men than the women have advanced degrees.

 

 

 

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Employment Data
The results related to employment status have remained basically unchanged since 1993.

Graph 8: One-third of the respondents have had 0-10, 11-20, or more than 20 years of professional food-related work experience.

Graph 9: Three-fourths of respondents have worked for more than one employer, and slightly more than half have worked for 2–4 employers.

Graph 10: About half of the respondents have worked for their employer for less than 6 years.

Graph 11: About half of the respondents work for companies with 1,000 or more employees

Graph 12: The great majority of respondents are employed full-time. Of the 150 unemployed, 25% have been out of work for more than one year, and 24% are seeking full-time employment.

Graph 13: Most respondents work in the R&D/Scientific/Technical category, followed closely by Sales/Marketing, Education, and Management.

Graph 14: Most employers provide the basic benefits.

Graph 15: Most employers give their employees travel expenses and time to attend the IFT Annual Meeting, but less than 30% provide give their employees time and expenses for doing IFT volunteer work. Only 44% of employers pay for attending IFT Regional Section meetings, compared to 55% in 1999.

Graph 16: Two-thirds of the respondents work for food and beverage companies and ingredient suppliers; 11% in education, 4% in consulting, and 3% in government; the remaining 16% are spread out among numerous categories.

Graph 17: Of the U.S. Census Bureau’s geographic divisions of the U.S., the highest concentration of respondents are in the East North Central region, followed by the Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic, and West North Central regions. For this year’s survey, the Pacific region was split into California and Other Pacific (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii).

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Salary Data
Full-time salaries below $10,000 and salaries of $300,000 or more for persons with less than 6 years of professional foodrelated experience were eliminated from the tabulations, since they appear to be unrealistic. Only salary data for full-time employees and for 10 or more respondents are presented here. The data are presented in terms of the median salary, meaning that half of the respondents make more than that amount and half make less.

Graph 18: Median salaries have increased for all degree levels.

Graph 19: Salaries ranged from $10,000 to $1.7 million, but 99% were below $208,000. The overall median salary for both sexes combined was $73,150, a 12.5% increase from the $65,000 in 1999.

Graph 20: Salaries for men ranged from $10,000 to $700,000, but 99% were below $225,000. The median salary was $83,000, an increase of 15.3% from the $72,000 in 1999.

Graph 21: Starting salaries have increased for both men and women. Starting salary is considered the median salary for those with one year or less of professional food-related work experience since receiving the BS degree. The data for 2001 are from the Starting Salary Survey.

Graph 22: Salaries for women ranged from $22,000 to $1.7 million, but 99% were below $165,000. The median salary was $64,500, an increase of 19.4% from the 54,000 in 1999.

Graph 23: The highest median salaries were paid in the Middle Atlantic region and California. The lowest were paid in the Mountain region.

Table 1: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and sex, all types of employer combineda

Table 2: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and geographical region, both sexes combined, all types of employer combined.

Table 2: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and geographical region, both sexes combined, all types of employer combined.

Salary increases with degree obtained and years of experience; but with the same degree and years of experience, men generally make more than women.

Part of the difference in median salaries for men and for women may be due to the fact that men have been working in the food field longer than women and therefore tend to have higher salaries. Nevertheless, men appear to receive higher salaries for the same degrees and years of experience.

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Table 3: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and type of employer, both sexes combined

Table 3: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and type of employer, both sexes combined

Table 3: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, years of experience, and type of employer, both sexes combined

Table 4: Median salary of full-time employees by degree, type of employer, and sex, all years of experience combined

Table 5: Median salary of full-time employees by job function/title and size of employer, both sexes combined, all years of experience combined, and all degrees combined

Table 5: Median salary of full-time employees by job function/title and size of employer, both sexes combined, all years of experience combined, and all degrees combined

Table 6: Trends over the past 37 years as indicated by previous IFT surveys.

Table 5: Median salary of full-time employees by job function/title and size of employer, both sexes combined, all years of experience combined, and all degrees combined

About the Author

IFT Fellow
Editor Emeritus of Food Technology
[email protected]
Neil Mermelstein

In This Article

  1. Continuing Education
  2. Professional Development
  3. Salary Survey

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