How much does an Economist get paid?

A brief follow up to Richard’s recent blog post on economics as a career option

So how much does an economist get paid? I have often fielded this question from students expressing an interest in sacrificing themselves for the benefit of the economics profession! The latest annual survey from the Society of Business Economists provides some evidence!

Let us start with the bonuses! The SBE report finds that the average bonus was £30,500 compared with 44,700 pounds a year earlier. The top earner was an asset-management employee who got £550,000 down from the 1.5 million pounds clinched by an investment-bank worker in the 2009 survey.

The median annual base salary rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier to £80,000 and median total cash compensation came in at £90,000. Cash compensation is made up of salary + bonus + share awards. Mean total cash compensation is highest for economists working in investment banking (£247,100).

It seems that earnings for economists have held up pretty well during the recession. But a word of caution - the sample size for the survey was only 90 people. Economists appear to have become less keen to contribute to the survey during this time of financial distress. And there are fewer economists in post as labour shedding has taken place in the financial services industry.

Academic economists do not fare well in this survey - earning on average £49,800 per year with economists in government on £62,600. This data does not take into account entitlement to and contributions made to any final salary pensionm schemes.

More here from the Independent

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: The Dawn of a Shareholder Spring? [8 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Adecco and Monopsony Power [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Tax on Beer [16 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Highest and Lowest Paid Jobs in the UK [26 Feb 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Low Pay in Supermarkets [24 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Public Goods [11 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
France and Flexible Employment [22 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Can a minimum wage create jobs? [16 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Should TNCs make full disclosure on factory wages? [30 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Drop Box and Freemium [18 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monospony Power and Low Wages in Care Homes [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tube Drivers set to earn £50,000 a year [3 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Real Disposable Income [11 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Austerity [6 Apr 2011]
Information Failures: Tesco and Second Hand Cars [3 Apr 2011]
Focus on Spain [16 Mar 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
Fun Fact Friday! Economists and what they’ve said [13 Feb 2011]
Shareholder activism at Thomas Cook [12 Feb 2011]
Migrants’ Transfers and the Balance of Payments [11 Feb 2011]
How Much Do I Earn? [1 Feb 2011]
Economics Q&A: Will the Government spending cuts affect inflation? [3 Jan 2011]
Heinz Means Strikes [29 Dec 2010]
Beijing City lifts their minimum wage by 21% [29 Dec 2010]
Pricing tricks and behavioural economics [12 Dec 2010]
Orange, iPads and the Lock In effect [29 Nov 2010]
iLand - Shareholders and Taxpayers feel the Pain [24 Nov 2010]
The Upside of Irrationality - Dan Ariely at the LSE [27 Oct 2010]
Economics Nobel Prize 2010 [11 Oct 2010]
Partial progress in closing the gender pay gap [10 Oct 2010]
Let’s hear it for the girls! [7 Oct 2010]
Can Pay Will Pay [17 Sep 2010]
Pay - What Are You Worth? [14 Sep 2010]
Typical 2689% APR…Eh?? [11 Aug 2010]
Pressure for higher minimum wages in Bangladesh [28 Jul 2010]
The Times Pay Wall [2 Jul 2010]
A Lewis Turning Point? Wages in China [8 Jun 2010]
Ethiopia’s electronic market place [6 Jun 2010]
AS Macro: Macroeconomic Performance [5 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Cost Push Inflation [31 May 2010]
What the poverty figures show [25 May 2010]
AS Economics Revision - The UK Economy Tracker [21 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - Price Expectations and Money Illusion [8 May 2010]
Business profits and the recession [1 May 2010]
UK Economy Revision: Inflation in the last few years [1 Apr 2010]
End of the Road for the Car Scrappage Scheme [31 Mar 2010]
Rethinking the size of the state [14 Mar 2010]
The chasm between rich and poor in Zimbabwe [20 Feb 2010]
Slumpflation? UK inflation jumps to 3.5% [16 Feb 2010]
Low pay, discrimination and monopsony power in the labour market [26 Jan 2010]
Focus on the National Minimum Wage [24 Jan 2010]
Unemployment and the UK economic cycle [23 Dec 2009]
Losing overtime to cut capacity [29 Nov 2009]
Pay freezes and macro performance [16 Nov 2009]
The Fiscal Crisis - Borrow Long - If You Can! [22 Oct 2009]
Market failure in city gender inequality [14 Oct 2009]
Wall Street Partnerships and Principal Agent Problem [12 Oct 2009]
Escaping from the Poverty Trap [11 Oct 2009]
The Economist and the FT on Twitter [6 Oct 2009]
King confirms green shoots [15 Sep 2009]
Strictly Labour Market theory? [11 Sep 2009]
Apprentice Jockeys and Low Wages [9 Sep 2009]
Businesses call for youth jobs subsidy [26 Aug 2009]
Unemployment in the UK labour market [13 Aug 2009]
Economics Snapshot - The Impact of Tax and Benefits on Inequality [30 Jul 2009]
Falling productivity - cause or symptom of the recession? [14 Jul 2009]
Short time working is a sign of labour market flexibility [14 Jul 2009]
New fiscal rule - get borrowing down [12 Jul 2009]
The New Economist Cinema Ad - Red Wires [10 Jul 2009]
Fiscal policy, public sector pay and employment flexibility [5 Jul 2009]
Recession causes reverse fiscal drag [3 Jun 2009]
Life in the Middle - income distribution in the UK [28 May 2009]
Revision - Cost of Living [26 May 2009]
Business decisions drive the cycle - one year on [24 May 2009]
RIP RPI? [20 May 2009]

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