A majority of independent sales organization and merchant acquiring salespeople say the nation’s latest recession had an impact on their compensation, the results of the ISO&Agent 2010 Compensation Survey show.
Of the 124 ISOs and acquiring salespeople who participated, 56% said the recession “somewhat” affected their compensation. Another 26% said the recession “very much” or “drastically” altered their compensation, while 19% reported no effect.
Indeed, there were subtle shifts within reported income levels. Just as in last year’s survey reflecting 2008 compensation, 11% of respondents said they made $50,000 or less in 2009. However, 31% reported they earned between $50,001 and $100,000 last year, up from 33% who said so the previous year. Also, 5% of participants reported earning between $150,001 and $175,000 last year, down from 8% who did in 2008. The 2010 survey also found that 11% of respondents reported making $300,001 or more last year, down from 16% who said so a year earlier.
Some big earners have moved on and left the industry for various reasons, and that may have helped cause the decrease at the top of the compensation scale, suggests David Fish, senior research analyst at Mercator Advisory Group Inc., a Maynard, Mass.-based consulting and research firm.
The compensation shifts also reflect the dearth of big bonuses–payouts as big as $50,000 or more in 2008–last year, says Curt Hensley, president of CSH Consulting Inc., a Phoenix-based payment-recruiting firm. “In general, a lot of the really high-end salespeople who were making over $300,000 have dropped into lower brackets,” Hensley tells PaymentsSource. “There are a lot of high-end earners who have been put out of positions.”
That partly could explain why fewer industry members reported making more than $300,000 in this year’s survey, he says.
The nation’s financial crisis swelled, business retreated and hiring slowed beginning in October 2008, Hensley says. A year later, however, conditions began to improve as businesses started hiring again last October, he says, suggesting hiring should pick up this year.
