Salaries rose only slightly, but increased almost across the board. Incentive pay shot up in a few job categories, but spiraled down in others—indicating that area's comparatively greater volatility.

These were two primary results of the "2000 Salary Survey" of 4,527 employees at 57 process measurement and control firms published by the Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA, Williamsburg, Va.) in September 2000.

Participating companies manufacture or distribute instrumentation, systems, and software used to measure, control or automate industrial processes. They were evenly divided at 28% among companies with annual sales of less than $10 million, $10-25 million, and more than $50 million; companies with $25-50 million in sales made up only 16% of the overall group.

Personnel surveyed were divided into six job areas: general management; field sales and service; technical marketing; sales support including training; product design and development; manufacturing engineering; and software programmers.

MCAA's study found base salaries in four of the six categories increased 4.7% on average between June 30, 1999, and June 30, 2000. However, base pay in the manufacturing engineering category decreased 1.5%, while salaries for software programmers remained unchanged during the same period. General management salaries jumped the most with a 12.2% increase.

The survey also revealed that 92% of the companies' employees receive incentive/bonus compensation, commissions, or both. About 62% receive incentive/bonus payments, while 38% receive incentive/bonus and commission payments. Though it appears that both commissions and incentive/bonus payments are awarded in many cases, particularly in the field sales and service categories, the survey didn't determine whether some employees receive incentive/ bonus pay or commissions because the responses for that question were aggregated.

MCAA's survey also included a benefits report for the first time since 1995. Nearly 20,000 employees are covered by the companies' benefits programs. Some of these traditional benefits include:

• Health insurance—All 57 reporting companies offer health insurance to employees and their families. Of these, 76% require their employees to pay a portion of the premium, and 94% of the firms require the employee to help pay for family coverage.
• Dental insurance—A slightly smaller percentage (93%) offer dental care, but those that do also provide family coverage.
• Short-term disability—70% of the reporting companies offer some type of salary continuation for illness or injury beyond sick leave and before long-term disability kicks in. About 82% of the companies cover costs associated with this benefit without employee contribution. The average waiting period is 12 days and short-term disability can continue to an average 19 weeks.
• Long-term disability—91% if the reporting companies offer long-term disability insurance and 78% of those cover the cost without employee contribution. The average benefit is 61% of salary with an average maximum of $8,260 per month.
• Life insurance—Group life is offered by 90% of the participating companies. They provide an average benefit equal to two times an individual's annual earnings. Most firms offer term insurance.
• Savings/retirement plans—94% of the participating firms offer some type of retirement plan. Of these, 75% offer a defined contribution type plan and 25% have both defined contribution and defined benefit types. Defined contribution plans average 7% employer contribution and a 5% match to employee contributions.

See also results of Control Engineering's reader survey ("Earning More...Enjoying it Less?" CE, Aug. '00, p. 52). For more info from MCAA, visit www.measure.org or www.controleng.com/freeinfo.