2011 IEMA pay and benefits survey

The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) annual members’ salary survey was carried out in December 2010 and January 2011 and 2,100 environmental managers, consultants and researchers throughout the UK provided pay and conditions data (for more details see the 2011 IEMA survey sample).

Respondents to the survey were asked to provide details of their 2010 salaries plus any extra earnings, such as bonuses, overtime and commission payments. These have been combined in most analyses to provide a comparison of total annual income from employment. Where possible, the tables show both the mean and median figures for the earnings data, but where space only allows one figure we have used the median (the midpoint in the range of figures), which is preferred by pay statisticians as it reduces the influence of a few very high or very low figures, which can distort the average.

Key findings:

• Environmental practitioners in the mining and quarrying, financial services, and transport and logistics sectors are, on average, the best paid.
• Average earnings are highest in the southeast of England, but the differential is small between most of the UK’s regions.
• There is a strong, positive relationship between an individual’s annual income from employment and their IEMA membership level.
• Men’s earnings are, on average, almost one-quarter (24.2%) higher than women’s, although this partly reflects different age profiles.
• Despite the economic recession, only a minority of environmental practitioners report pay freezes (37.2%) or cuts (7.1%).
• The majority of respondents have received a pay rise over the past 12 months, commonly between 2% and 3% so below the current rate of inflation.
• Almost half of environmental practitioners (46.5%) say their workload increased because of the continuing recession in 2010.
• Around one in six environmental professionals (17.5%) works more than 45 hours a week.

Read the full survey results:

• A profession on the move says Jan Chmiel, IEMA's chief executive
• Earnings by seniority in sector
• Earnings by industrial sector
• Earnings by IEMA membership level
• Earnings by highest quailfication
• The gender gap: Men and women's pay
• Changes to pay in 2010
• Changes to bonuses and additional payments
• Holidays and benefits
• From downturn to upturn - the current job market
• The 2011 IEMA survey sample