E-PAY
New US study of pay for internet strategy and development positions
Larger firms offer staff involved in internet strategy and development higher base salaries and cash incentives than web and technology businesses, which focus more on long-term incentives, most notably stock options. This is the main finding to emerge from a new US study by human resource consulting firm William M Mercer.
The study reveals that long-term incentives are widespread at all job levels in internet/technology firms, but are offered more frequently to those at or above manager level within the internet function of the large corporations.
Total compensation mix for internet positions
| Position | Base pay | Short-term incentive | Long-term incentive |
| VP/function head |
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|
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| Large corporations | 41% | 16% | 43% |
| Internet/technology firms | 41% | 7% | 52% |
| Second-level director/manager |
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|
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| Large corporations | 58% | 14% | 28% |
| Internet/technology firms | 49% | 6% | 45% |
| Manager/individual contributor |
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|
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| Large corporations | 81% | 7% | 12% |
| Internet/technology firms | 61% | 6% | 33% |
| Professional (non-manager) |
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|
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| Large corporations | 95% | 3% | 2% |
| Internet/technology firms | 71% | 11% | 18% |
Source: 2000 Benchmarking study of pay and reward design practices in internet strategy and development, by William M Mercer.
What you will find in the Mercer study:
cash compensation levels
short-term and long-term incentive opportunities
pay mix (base pay, short-term and long-term incentives)
non-cash benefits and perquisites
sign-on awards.
Want to know more?
William M Mercer is a leading human resource consultancy with more than 13,000 employees. It serves clients in 132 cities spread across 37 countries . . . www.wmmercer.com.
Title: 2000 Benchmarking study of pay and reward design practices in internet strategy and development, by William M Mercer.
Sample size: Sponsored by American Express, the study, looks at the reward programmes and practices of a dozen large corporations with a significant internet function (median annual corporate revenues of $28 billion), as well as 11 established internet/technology firms (median annual revenues of $111 million).
Availability: Contact your local William M Mercer office or email: ann.egan@us.wmmercer.com. You can purchase the survey online at www.imercer.com.
A summary of the survey, published 2 April 2001, is available free of charge on Mercer’ s news web site . . . www.wmmercer.com/us-news.