Total Compensation and Salaries Growing, But at a Slower Pace

Employee Satisfaction with Compensation on the Rise

Total compensation and salary adjustments on average fell slightly in independent insurance agencies responding to the 2019 Agency Salary Survey, but that trend has had little effect when it comes to employee satisfaction.

On average, employee satisfaction with compensation overall rose again in 2018.

Satisfaction over agency compensation has steadily improved in recent years and ticked up for both producers/sales and support staff in 2019, while management/owners saw a slight drop. (See Agency Compensation Satisfaction Index chart on page 40.)

• Management/agency owners/agency principals reported a compensation satisfaction score of 3.67 in the 2019 survey, down slightly from 3.7 in the 2018 survey, based on a scale of 1-to-5 where “5” equaled “most satisfied.”
• Producers/sales reported satisfaction of 3.31 in the 2019 survey, up from 3.23 in the 2018 survey.
• And support staff/CSR/ account executives reported a satisfaction score of 3.12 in the 2019 survey, up slightly from 3.08 in the 2018 survey.

Overall compensation satisfaction scored higher when agencies offered employee benefits, both hard benefits such has group health, dental coverage, profit sharing, pension plans, IRAs and flexible savings accounts, and soft benefits such as childcare/day care, education reimbursement and paid family leave. (See Employee Benefit Satisfaction Index, page 41.)

Employee benefit satisfaction ranked highest in the survey when agencies offered added benefits such as a pension plan (4.03), profit sharing (3.75), education reimbursement (3.65), and paid family leave (3.65). The survey found that in two-thirds of the employee benefit categories queried, employees showed more satisfaction with overall compensation when those benefits were offered.

The survey also revealed a slight downward trend in total compensation. Insurance agency management, owners, principals and support staff continued to show raises in total compensation in 2018, but at a lower pace than the previous year.

According to the 2019 Agency Salary Survey, based on responses from about 800 respondents nationwide, total income changes, which includes salary plus additional compensation such as profit sharing, bonuses and other income, were:

• Agency owners, principals and management reported a rise in total income for 2018, which revealed a 5.5 percent increase in total income compared to a 6.3 percent increase in total income for 2017.
• Producers/sales total income revealed a 6.0 percent increase for 2018, compared to a 6.2 percent increase in 2017.
• Agency support staff total income rose the least on average to a 2.9 percent increase for 2018, com- pared to a 3.9 percent increase in 2017.

Overall salaries increased as well but also at a slower pace than the previous year, except for producers/sales, according to this year’s survey results.

• Salaries for agency owners, principals and management went up 3.8 percent in 2018 compared to a 5.3 percent jump in 2017.
• Producers/sales reported average increases in salary of 4.2 percent in 2018 compared to 3.5 percent in 2017.
• Salaries for agency support staff went up 3.1 percent on average in 2018, which was slightly lower than the 3.3 percent raise they got in 2017.