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CSR weathers economic storm

Professionals in the corporate social responsibility arena managed to maintain and in some cases improve their salaries despite the turbulent economy, according to research by recruitment firm Acre Resources.

Professionals in the corporate social responsibility arena managed to maintain and in some cases improve their salaries despite the turbulent economy, according to research by recruitment firm Acre Resources.

The third annual corporate responsibilities (CR) salary survey, which sampled almost 600 individuals, showed that the average UK CR annual salary has increased from £49,600 to £54,560. Given that effective private sector wage inflation currently stands at zero, the result does indicate that CSR is climbing the corporate agenda and commanding greater respect and reward within companies.

Despite this, the UK continues to lag behind the rest of the world in CR salaries. Directors in Europe earned on average $159,000 (£106,686), North America $151,000 while the UK came in at a lowly $126,000. There is no explanation offered for this, though the disparity does conform to general wage differences across territories.

Women dominate CR roles globally, including holding more senior titles. Globally, the CR workforce is 56 percent female, with that split increasing to 61 percent in favour of women in the UK. Crucially, however, the pay gap between the sexes remains constant.

The survey revealed that, of those earning more than $180,000, 55 percent are men. And the continuing pay disparity is put into perspective by the news that women take up only 53 percent of senior director roles across the world despite dominating in terms of headcount further down the workforce.

Drilling down in the results, the roles differ according to gender, too. According to the survey, women continue to dominate in community investment roles while men focus on activities relating to climate change and environment.

Other findings included that the majority of CR directors concentrated their efforts on reporting, followed by audit and assurance with climate change ranking fourth. In the UK, environment is the main focus for CR professionals, followed by community investment, with reporting and performance measurement coming in third.

Rachael Singh writes our sustainability page

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