How's your paycheck?

Some of the highest paid professionals in the supply chain are found in materials handling. Where do you stack up?

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/1/2000

An exclusive 1999 Modern Materials Handling salary survey reveals that materials handling professionals earn more than most other professionals working within the supply chain. This includes people from design engineers and purchasing managers to industrial distributors.

The average yearly pay for a materials handling professional comes in at $67,879, with an average yearly increase of 7%. The average materials handling professional is a college educated male in his mid-forties.

Materials handling professionals are also a loyal bunch Most of them have had 18 years of experience, 13 with their current employer. Eight years is the average number of years respondents have been in their current position. Salaries are attributable in part to so many materials handling professionals having been with their companies for such a span of time.

More than 86% of respondents indicated that knowledge of information technology is very important or essential to job performance. Not surprisingly, almost 93% reported that their company's use and reliance on technology has increased over the past three years.

In addition, the number of job functions that materials handling professionals perform have increased over the past few years for almost 85% of our respondents.

Examples of materials handling professional positions include engineers, materials managers, and vp/general managers.

The top three job functions these professionals perform are production/ manufacturing, 15.5%; warehousing management, 11.3%; and general management 10.2%. Additionally, they also perform plant management and information systems functions.