The December 2020 edition of Quality Progress magazine features what is always one of their most eagerly anticipated articles of the year: their comprehensive salary survey of the quality profession.

The survey results are available online, and access is open to everyone. All other content is available to members only. This year’s report contains print and online-only sections, the debut of a refreshed salary calculator, and results from queries related to COVID-19. A follow-up article on COVID-19 and the quality profession is planned for March 2021 edition.

Some of the key findings include:

• The mean full-time salary for U.S. respondents is $103,512 which is a bit more than 8% higher than 2019’s average of $95,790.
• In the United States, professionals who work full time for an employer, while also moonlighting as consultants earn hefty salaries averaging $123,318 from their regular employment. They also supplement that income with an average of $50,771 in billings as a consultant.
• In the United States, professionals holding five ASQ certifications earn on average $122,296 a year.
• S. respondents who have completed any Six Sigma training earned on average $111,412, a sizeable boost of $16,411 over those without Six Sigma training. For Canadian respondents, that difference is $15,869 (Canadian dollars).
• In this year’s data, the premium for those with Master Black Belts training over those with simply Black Belt training is $26,123.
• For U.S. respondents who stay in the profession beyond six years, that extra experience brings a premium of $9,590 per year.
• In the United States, respondents with master’s degrees (38.2%) bring home paychecks averaging $120,282.
• In the United States, 27.1% of respondents report that they work in a service industry, at an average salary of $110,554. This is about 9% more than the earnings reported by professionals in the manufacturing sector.
• Among this year’s respondents, the best-paid quality engineers in U.S. manufacturing work in defense manufacturing, where their average salary is $96,431.
• The highest-educated group among respondents are educators/instructors. Only 2% of this elite group has less than a bachelor’s degree, and 86% hold a master’s degree or higher.
• More than 1,200 respondents said that they believed the COVID-19 crisis would bring about permanent changes in their workplaces.
• Almost a quarter of respondents said that productivity had been positively affected by switching to remote work.

Learn more online here.