How Much Do Project Managers Make? 2020 Project Manager Salary Guide
How much does a project manager make?
Before we answer this question, some housekeeping:
The only real answer to this question is (the eternally frustrating), “Well, it depends…” As a project manager, your salary depends on factors like your:
- Sector
- Seniority
- Specialization
- Location — which country? Urban or rural?
- Project management education
- Average project budget
Tools like Payscale and Salary.com can provide some good general salary info, but their shortcoming is that they encompass a lot of estimates that don’t hone in on the digital project management niche, which is what we’re focused on here at The Digital Project Manager. They also don’t always provide enough specificity to be useful. So, we started surveying the DPM community to get specific insight into digital project manager salaries. Our survey was designed to find answers to questions like:
- What’s a typical digital project manager’s salary?
- What are the average salaries for related roles?
- What’s the going day rate for freelance project managers?
Hundreds of participants from around the globe filled out the 2020 survey. We also supplemented our survey with salary data from other sources on the web, and we’ve compiled the results here to help you better understand the digital project management career field as it continues to grow. And head’s up — we’re collecting data to update the results for 2021. Please participate by taking a few minutes to complete the survey here:
2020 Digital Project Manager Salary Survey Results
This year, we had hundreds of participants from around the globe, with the majority residing in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The remaining 42% of respondents came from a collection of 63 countries — a wider reach than our surveys in previous years.
This year, most professionals identified themselves as Project Managers, followed by Senior Project Managers, Project Coordinators, Head of Project Management, and Project Directors.
The large majority of respondents (79%) work on permanent contracts, with 21% working in contract or freelance roles. More freelancers were represented in the survey data than in previous years.
2020 Salary Highlights
One major trend we observed this year was a mix of increases and decreases in salaries. While some positions across the USA, Canada, and the UK saw a reduction, Project Managers, Project Coordinators, and Senior Project Managers in the USA saw an increase. In the UK, Project Coordinators and Senior Project Managers saw a slight increase, as did Senior Project Managers in Canada. You can find country-specific details on this below, but overall, the role of Project Manager in the UK and Canada experienced decreases of anywhere from 1% to 7% from last year, while Project Manager salaries in the USA increased.
Meanwhile, upper-level roles like Senior Project Manager, Project Director, and Head of Project Management witnessed a mix of increases and decreases. Project Director salaries decreased across the board, whereas Senior Project Managers saw increases of anywhere from 6% to 18% in all three countries. Head of Project Management saw a decrease of just under 4% in the USA. This mix of increases and decreases departs slightly from trends observed from 2018 to 2019 — which showed increases in salaries for more entry-level and mid-level positions and salary decreases for more senior positions.
Last year, we noted that upper-level PMO roles were undergoing a shift, possibly due to flattening workplace hierarchies, or ongoing conversations and regulations that have targeted pay inequality in corporations. While our data is limited, it’s fair to say that these trends contributed to some of the decreases between 2019 and 2020.
Another interesting trend observed this year was an increase in non-traditional Project Management job titles. 15% of respondents worldwide had job titles that were not necessarily indicative of a PM role. These respondents had titles such as Scrum Master, Developer, Account Manager, Creative Director, Implementation Consultant, and more. This shows that more positions are getting involved in project management and taking on the responsibilities of a Project Manager.
U.S.A. Digital Project Manager Salary Highlights
We received 226 responses from digital project managers in the U.S.A. spanning 67 cities. The salaries for full-time positions ranged from $32,500 to $210,000. The average freelance digital project manager contractor rate presented a wider range of rates compared to last year’s results, varying from $50 to $1,100 a day. Compared to 2019, this year’s survey results demonstrate salary increases for some digital project manager positions.
The average salary for Project Managers increased from roughly $75,183 to $75,540. Project Coordinators and Senior Project Managers saw larger increases of $54,896 to $59,929 and $86,600 to $95,480 respectively. However, other higher-level roles saw decreases in salary: Head of Project Management had a decrease of $105,155 to $101,408, and Project Directors saw a smaller decrease of $95,342 to $95,129.
UK Digital Project Manager Salary Highlights
We received 64 responses from digital project managers in the United Kingdom spanning 20 cities, with almost half of respondents living in London. The digital project manager salaries ranged from £21,620 to £117,000. The average freelance digital project manager contractor rate varied from £39 to £625 a day. Compared to 2019, the role of Project Coordinator saw an increased average salary from £30,900 to £39,400.
Senior Project Managers saw a similarly large jump of £44,322 to £53,804. Project Managers saw a slight decrease from £38,590 to £38,224, as did the more senior role of Project Director with a fall of £56,250 to £51,000 between 2019 and 2020, respectively. Head of Project Management saw an average of £89,500 in 2020.
Canadian Digital Project Manager Salary Highlights
We received 51 responses from digital project managers in Canada across 10 cities, with about a third of responses coming from Vancouver and another third from Toronto. The digital project manager salaries ranged from $40,000 to $110,000, a decrease from 2019’s salary range of $55,000 to $135,000. The freelance project manager’s day rate ranged from $75 to $520.
In Canada, we observed a decrease in the salaries of Project Coordinators and Project Managers, from $51,000 to $50,000 and $72,158 to $66,771, respectively. Head of Project Management decreased as well by almost 20% from $106,667 to $85,833. Senior Project Managers had the only increase in salary for Canada, going from $75,333 to $80,571.
How Much Do Project Managers Make?
Otherwise known as, “Am I being paid what I’m worth?”
If you’re looking for an average project manager salary, you’ll find a wide range of answers from career sites and labor organizations.
- For instance, looking at the results from a few well-known career sites, the average PM salary in the U.S. is reported to be $66,137 on one site and $136,767 on another.
- Likewise, the variance in reported salary ranges makes it difficult to understand where you might even fall on the spectrum, with one site reporting a very wide project manager salary range of $38,805 to $163,947 in the U.S.
We can do better than that.
Below, we show the results of calculating the average salaries for various project management roles by combining salary averages. We combined the data from our 2020 Salary Survey with data from sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed, LinkedIn, CW Jobs, Neuvoo, telegraph, Zip Recruiter, and other career sites. We’ve only covered the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but you can still use these estimates to get a basic idea of project management salaries.
Average Project Manager Salary
This is a broad category that includes project management roles across sectors like IT, government, healthcare, finance, construction, and many more. Here’s the average salary for project managers:
- Project manager salary Canada: $69,562 (CAD)
- Project manager salary U.S.: $76,543
- Project manager salary U.K.: £40,183
How much does a project manager make per hour?
Based on the average project manager salary listed above and calculated based on a 40-hour workweek, project managers earn an average of $33(CAD)/hour in Canada, $37/hour in the United States, and £19/hour in the United Kingdom. Keep in mind that this hourly rate is a simple calculation based on average annual salaries — not necessarily what you’d charge as your project manager hourly rate if you’re a contract, freelance, or work from the home project manager.
Average Digital Project Manager Salary
Our calculations show a clear difference between a general PM salary (above) and a digital PM salary. Compared to the numbers above, across the board, we see that digital project management pays 4–15% less than the project management industry average.
- Digital project manager salary Canada: $63,366 (CAD)
- Digital project manager salary United States: $67,726
- Digital project manager salary United Kingdom: £39,072
It’s worth pointing out that in our salary survey looking specifically at digital project management salaries, the reported digital PM salary was consistent with the numbers above.
Average Entry-Level Project Manager Salary
Entry-level PMs go by a few different titles. Typically, the salary falls within the same range as a junior project manager salary, project assistant salary, project coordinator salary, assistant project manager salary, or associate project manager salary. Or, your role might also simply be “project manager”, but with pay starting on the lower end of the earning scale.
Here’s what you can expect:
- Entry-level project manager salary Canada: $54,015 (CAD)
- Entry-level project manager salary United States: $55,329
- Entry-level project manager salary United Kingdom: £34,223
Average Late Career and Senior Project Manager Salary
Predicting what your salary would be as a late-career, experienced, or senior PM gets tricky. This is because the project management career path can take you in many directions and not all of them in project management. It’s important to keep this in mind when considering salary averages as your career advances: instead of looking at a senior PM role, you might be looking at program or portfolio management, business analysis, operations, directorship, consulting, and many other positions.
Average Program Manager Salary
The main difference between project management and program management is that program managers are responsible for a portfolio of projects or programs, while a project manager is responsible for the fulfillment of the projects themselves. Senior program manager Suze Haworth goes into more detail on the program manager role in her article on becoming a project manager. In many cases, the career paths of project and program management overlap, with program managers drawing a higher average salary than project managers:
- Program manager salary Canada: $86,667 (CAD)
- Program manager salary United States: $96,855
- Program manager salary United Kingdom: £62,273
And advancing along the career path, the average senior program manager salary in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom is $104,918 (CAD), $110,118, and £73,019, respectively.
Digital Project Manager Salary Considerations
As with any salary survey, it’s difficult to provide accurate summaries because there are so many variables. So before we dive into the digital project manager salary survey results, here are a few things to think about.
Contract vs. Permanent PM’s
There are pros and cons of being a contractor versus a full-time employee. The major advantage of contracting is that you will likely get paid more. The disadvantage is that you may be thrown onto projects that are temporary and may provide very little growth to your professional development. Also, sure you may have a neat list of agencies that you’ve worked for here and there, but the projects need to be substantial enough to bring you to your next career move.
Generalist vs. Specialist project managers
If you have gathered significant experience under a certain skillset (e.g. understanding a particular CMS well), this can set you apart from other digital project managers. With this under your belt, it may allow you to work on more projects about your skillset and potentially drawing a more premium salary within your industry. However, this is subject to supply and demand, so be sure to evaluate whether the skillset you have will continue to be in-demand!
Industry — IT and banking PM’s are always on the money
A big part of determining a digital project manager’s salary is the industry in which they work. A large bank or software company would provide a much higher salary compared to a non-profit organization or a smaller local company. Of course, at the end of the day, it’s about understanding your needs and what is the best fit.
Location — city slickers get the big bucks
The location factor will always be a salary influencer. Based on our past salary results, major cities that are bigger economic markets have been known to offer higher salaries. This, of course, comes with higher expectations and slightly more pressure in performance. Spoiler alert: this year’s salary survey results are no different.
Participate In The 2021 Salary Survey. Read more here.
Originally published at https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com on May 19, 2020.
