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While we all love the year-end holidays, these can be “hell-days” when it comes to performance reviews and compensation negotiation for most chief marketing officers. 

We polled over 60 chief marketers in the CMO Council LinkedIn groups in November with the question below. Most are expecting more than a little bump in financial rewards this year, but there are still 36 percent who are going to bite the bullet and hope 2023 will see better returns.

“What type of compensation adjustment do you expect based on your marketing leadership and group performance in 2022?” 

Salary increase of 10%+

18%/11

Bonus or stock awards

20%/12

Both, plus more benefits

26%/16

No adjustment to compensation

36%/22

The CMO Council’s online resource (www.cmocompensation.com) for chief marketers to compare salaries and other income and benefits against their peers provides a wealth of current and historical data. Senior marketers can benchmark their compensation based on gender, company size, industry sector, number of employees, geography, etc.

Analytics from more than 120 profiles created over the past 18 months reveals:

• Chief marketers in hybrid companies earn on average $73,730 (22.4%) more than B2C CMOs and $39,700 (9.8%) more than B2B CMOs 
• Female CMOs earn on average 13.9% more that male CMOs in the U.S. 
• CMOS in B2B Companies earn on average $35,000 (13.9%) more than B2C CMOS 
• Average CMO annual salary in U.S. is $238,000; the average annual bonus is $72,500 
• CMOS in large corporations earn on average 15.9% more than their counterparts in medium-sized businesses and more than double (35.1%) over those in small businesses 
• There was a 2.3% increase in salary for CMOs in medium-sized companies from 2020 to 2022
• There was a 17.6% drop in average CMO salaries in large businesses in 2022 vs 2020 

The Smart Way to Track Marketing Pay – The CMO Council’s new initiative to benchmark chief marketer compensation around the globe has gained real traction. The CMOCompensation.com web site is attracting strong interest and hundreds of marketers have created profiles of their compensation packages to see how they stack up against peers. This is a valuable resource for management, boards, HR, recruiters and marketing leaders to look at compensation levels, elements and variations by industry, geography, area of responsibility, and size of company. Visit: www.cmocompensation.com 

There is more and more transparency today in tracking and reporting CMO compensation. A quick scan of the Internet reveals a range of CMO compensation numbers from different salary, recruitment, and advisory service websites. Here’s a quick reference list: 

• “The salaries of CMOs in the US range from $48,000 to $700,000, with a median salary of $245,000. The middle 57% of CMOs makes between $245,000 and $392,000, with the top 86% making $700,000.” - www.comparably.com 
• “The average Chief Marketing Officer salary in the United States is $339,556 as of November 23, 2022, but the range typically falls between $293,661 and $413,523.” - www.salary.com
• “The average salary for a chief marketing officer is $134,858 per year in the United States. Based on 189 salaries reported as of December 2, 2022.” - www.indeed.com
• “We’re seeing annual salaries as high as $274,500 and as low as $27,000, the majority of Chief Marketing Officer salaries currently range between $100,000 (25th percentile) to $200,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $244,000 annually across the United States.” - www.ziprecruiter.com 
• “The average chief marketing officer salary in the USA is $150,000 per year or $72.12 per hour. Entry level positions start at $104,333 per year while most experienced workers make up to $212,500 per year.” - www.talent.com 
• “While CMOs are overwhelmingly male, in 2019 female CMOs earned more in total comp than their male peers. According to the latest CMO Council study, female CMO salaries averaged $212,898 and their bonuses $56,229, while males earned an average of $209,525 and bonuses of $53,388.” - www.apex-cmo-search.com
• “The average salary for a Chief Marketing Officer is $187,600 per year ($15,630 per month), which is $134,110 (+251%) higher than the average salary in the US. A Chief Marketing Officer can expect an average starting salary of $90,500. The highest salaries can exceed $350,000.” - www.jobted.com 

Related: Get ahead of the disruption! Become a CMO Council Member today!