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Salaries and wages in the U.S. lodging industry: Are they as low as the general perception?
International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 157–158
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Editorial
Salaries and wages in the U.S. lodging industry: Are they as low as the general perception?
In an editorial titled “Is the Foodservice Industry Composed of Only Low-Paid and Unskilled Jobs?” (Pizam, 2015), I argued that though the mean annual wage/salary of U.S. foodservice employees is relatively low (US$22,500) and below the mean annual wage/salary of all U.S. occupations (US$47,230), a modest proportion (1.5%) of these employees earn an annual mean wage/salary of US$70,000 and higher. Furthermore the total salaries paid to
these employees represents 5.02% of all the salaries/wages paid to U.S. foodservice employees. Also, contrary to popular perception, the foodservice industry in the U.S.A. – and I suspect in other countries as well – is not only composed of low paid and unskilled workers but also employs tens of thousands (159,500) of managerial and skilled technical jobs such as Information Technology & Computer Systems, Marketing & Advertising, Financial
Table 1 Number of jobs and associated annual salaries for U.S. Travel accommodation industry employees’ with mean annual salary of US$70,000 and higher.a Occupational code
Occupational title
No. of jobs
Mean annual salary in US$
Total annual salary for occupation (in millions of US$)
15-1131 29-1000 17-2141 13-2059 13-2051 11-3071 11-0000 13-2099 11-3011 11-9071 11-3061 11-3111 11-3131 11-2011 11-9199 15-1132 11-2022 11-1021 11-2031 11-2020 11-3000 11-1000 11-3121 11-3011 23-0000 11-2031 11-3021 11-2021 11-9021 11-9041 23-1000 23-1010 23-1011 11-1011
Computer Programmers Health Diagnosing & Treating Mechanical Engineers Financial Analysts & Advisors Financial Analysts Transportation, Storage & Distribution Mgrs. Management Occupations Financial Specialists–All Other Administrative Service Mgrs. General Managers Purchasing Managers Compensation & Benefits Managers Training & Development Managers Advertising & Promotion Managers Managers–All Others Software Developers Applications Sales Managers General & Operations Managers Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, PR & Sales Marketing & Sales Managers Operations Specialties Managers Top Executives Human Resources Managers Financial Managers Legal Occupations Public Relations and Fundraising Managers Computer & Information Systems Managers Marketing Managers Construction Managers Architectural & Engineering Managers Lawyers, Judges & Related Workers Lawyers & Judicial Clerks Lawyers Chief Executives
80 120 100 240 240 70 77,500 180 2940 1580 420 120 70 730 2420 50 6830 16,320 8.86 7980 9.68 12,380 1730 3820 100 150 500 1150 60 60 50 50 50 1060
$70,040 $70,400 $70,570 $71,140 $71,140 $75,190 $75,320 $77,820 $78,420 $80,840 $81,880 $82,860 $84,000 $86,110 $86,260 $87,570 $88,120 $89,430 $91,380 $91,630 $92,510 $93,620 $95,700 $102,280 $103,060 $103,210 $104,780 $112,570 $120,540 $121,220 $150,440 $150,440 $150,440 $158,120
$5.60 $8.40 $7.00 $17.00 $17.00 $5.30 $5841.80 $14.00 $230.50 $127.70 $34.40 $9.90 $5.90 $62.80 $208.70 $4.40 $601.80 $1459.50 $809.60 $731.20 $895.40 $1627.10 $165.60 $390.70 $10.30 $15.50 $52.40 $129.40 $7.20 $7.30 $7.50 $7.50 $7.50 $167.60
Total
162,750
a
Source: US Dept of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.10.003 0278-4319/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
$13,693.80
158
Editorial / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 157–158
Table 2 Summary statistics.a
Mean Total No. of employees Percent of employees in category Total annual wages/salaries Percent of annual wages/salaries in category a b
Entire US traveler accommodation industry
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $47,231b and higher
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $50,001 and higher
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $70,001 and higher
$29,220 1,860,800 100% $54,372,576,000 100%
487,330 26.20% $30,919,000,000 56.86%
438,310 23.50% $28,544,000,000 52.50%
162,750 8.75% $13,693,800,000 25.37%
Source: US Dept of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mean Salary/Wage for all U.S. occupations = $47,230.
and Accounting specialists, Human Resources professionals and others. The same argument can be made in the case of the U.S. lodging industry. As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2, though the US lodging industry employs fewer workers than the foodservice industry (1,860,800 vs. 10,624,850) the U.S. lodging industry pays higher mean annual wages/salaries (US$29,220 vs. US$22,500) and employs a larger proportion of well-paid employees, than the U.S. foodservice industry (8.75% vs.1.5% of employees earning an annual mean salary/wage of US$70,000 or higher). Furthermore, it also employs a larger range of highly skilled technical and managerial workers than the U.S. foodservice industry (34 occupations that are paid an annual mean salary/wage of US$70,000 and higher in the lodging industry, vs 21 occupations in the foodservice industry). Also, though the total annual wages/salaries paid to employees in the foodservice industry is 4.4 times larger than the total annual wages/salaries paid in the lodging industry (US$ 239 billion vs. US$54 billion), the proportion of salaries/wages paid to highly compensated employees out of total salaries/wages in the lodging industry is five times higher than that in the foodservice industry (25.37% vs. 5.02%). Last, but not least, as seen in Table 2, more than one fourth (26.2%) of employees in the US lodging industry, earned in 2014 a mean annual salary/wage higher than the mean annual salary/wage of all US employees ($47,230). Thus, the overall conclusion that can be drawn from the above analysis is that the U.S. lodging industry despite its nature of being a labor-intensive service industry, provided in 2014 some
487,000 jobs that paid a higher mean annual wage/salary than that of the mean annual wage/salary of all U.S. occupations. Furthermore, the majority of employees in these jobs, are highly skilled career employees who have “earned their stripes” by starting their employment at the bottom of the organizational ladder earning minimum wages and climbing up over a few years. This should be well remembered when the industry is accused of employing low paid and unskilled workers in dead-end jobs. As was the case with foodservice employees, I invite my colleagues in other parts of the world to conduct similar studies and determine if the phenomenon described here is common elsewhere. I would also like to encourage researchers in the tourism industry to study this issue and determine once and for all the status of salaries and wages in the tourism industries, worldwide. References Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015. May 2014 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: AICS 721100 – Traveller Accommodation, Retrieved from www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3-722000.htm (accessed 16.8.15). Pizam, A., 2015. Editorial: Is the foodservice industry composed of only low-paid and unskilled jobs? Int. J. Hosp. Manage. 50.
Editor-in-Chief Abraham Pizam University of Central Florida, United States
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Editorial
Salaries and wages in the U.S. lodging industry: Are they as low as the general perception?
In an editorial titled “Is the Foodservice Industry Composed of Only Low-Paid and Unskilled Jobs?” (Pizam, 2015), I argued that though the mean annual wage/salary of U.S. foodservice employees is relatively low (US$22,500) and below the mean annual wage/salary of all U.S. occupations (US$47,230), a modest proportion (1.5%) of these employees earn an annual mean wage/salary of US$70,000 and higher. Furthermore the total salaries paid to
these employees represents 5.02% of all the salaries/wages paid to U.S. foodservice employees. Also, contrary to popular perception, the foodservice industry in the U.S.A. – and I suspect in other countries as well – is not only composed of low paid and unskilled workers but also employs tens of thousands (159,500) of managerial and skilled technical jobs such as Information Technology & Computer Systems, Marketing & Advertising, Financial
Table 1 Number of jobs and associated annual salaries for U.S. Travel accommodation industry employees’ with mean annual salary of US$70,000 and higher.a Occupational code
Occupational title
No. of jobs
Mean annual salary in US$
Total annual salary for occupation (in millions of US$)
15-1131 29-1000 17-2141 13-2059 13-2051 11-3071 11-0000 13-2099 11-3011 11-9071 11-3061 11-3111 11-3131 11-2011 11-9199 15-1132 11-2022 11-1021 11-2031 11-2020 11-3000 11-1000 11-3121 11-3011 23-0000 11-2031 11-3021 11-2021 11-9021 11-9041 23-1000 23-1010 23-1011 11-1011
Computer Programmers Health Diagnosing & Treating Mechanical Engineers Financial Analysts & Advisors Financial Analysts Transportation, Storage & Distribution Mgrs. Management Occupations Financial Specialists–All Other Administrative Service Mgrs. General Managers Purchasing Managers Compensation & Benefits Managers Training & Development Managers Advertising & Promotion Managers Managers–All Others Software Developers Applications Sales Managers General & Operations Managers Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, PR & Sales Marketing & Sales Managers Operations Specialties Managers Top Executives Human Resources Managers Financial Managers Legal Occupations Public Relations and Fundraising Managers Computer & Information Systems Managers Marketing Managers Construction Managers Architectural & Engineering Managers Lawyers, Judges & Related Workers Lawyers & Judicial Clerks Lawyers Chief Executives
80 120 100 240 240 70 77,500 180 2940 1580 420 120 70 730 2420 50 6830 16,320 8.86 7980 9.68 12,380 1730 3820 100 150 500 1150 60 60 50 50 50 1060
$70,040 $70,400 $70,570 $71,140 $71,140 $75,190 $75,320 $77,820 $78,420 $80,840 $81,880 $82,860 $84,000 $86,110 $86,260 $87,570 $88,120 $89,430 $91,380 $91,630 $92,510 $93,620 $95,700 $102,280 $103,060 $103,210 $104,780 $112,570 $120,540 $121,220 $150,440 $150,440 $150,440 $158,120
$5.60 $8.40 $7.00 $17.00 $17.00 $5.30 $5841.80 $14.00 $230.50 $127.70 $34.40 $9.90 $5.90 $62.80 $208.70 $4.40 $601.80 $1459.50 $809.60 $731.20 $895.40 $1627.10 $165.60 $390.70 $10.30 $15.50 $52.40 $129.40 $7.20 $7.30 $7.50 $7.50 $7.50 $167.60
Total
162,750
a
Source: US Dept of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.10.003 0278-4319/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
$13,693.80
158
Editorial / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 157–158
Table 2 Summary statistics.a
Mean Total No. of employees Percent of employees in category Total annual wages/salaries Percent of annual wages/salaries in category a b
Entire US traveler accommodation industry
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $47,231b and higher
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $50,001 and higher
Jobs paying a mean annual salary/wage of $70,001 and higher
$29,220 1,860,800 100% $54,372,576,000 100%
487,330 26.20% $30,919,000,000 56.86%
438,310 23.50% $28,544,000,000 52.50%
162,750 8.75% $13,693,800,000 25.37%
Source: US Dept of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mean Salary/Wage for all U.S. occupations = $47,230.
and Accounting specialists, Human Resources professionals and others. The same argument can be made in the case of the U.S. lodging industry. As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2, though the US lodging industry employs fewer workers than the foodservice industry (1,860,800 vs. 10,624,850) the U.S. lodging industry pays higher mean annual wages/salaries (US$29,220 vs. US$22,500) and employs a larger proportion of well-paid employees, than the U.S. foodservice industry (8.75% vs.1.5% of employees earning an annual mean salary/wage of US$70,000 or higher). Furthermore, it also employs a larger range of highly skilled technical and managerial workers than the U.S. foodservice industry (34 occupations that are paid an annual mean salary/wage of US$70,000 and higher in the lodging industry, vs 21 occupations in the foodservice industry). Also, though the total annual wages/salaries paid to employees in the foodservice industry is 4.4 times larger than the total annual wages/salaries paid in the lodging industry (US$ 239 billion vs. US$54 billion), the proportion of salaries/wages paid to highly compensated employees out of total salaries/wages in the lodging industry is five times higher than that in the foodservice industry (25.37% vs. 5.02%). Last, but not least, as seen in Table 2, more than one fourth (26.2%) of employees in the US lodging industry, earned in 2014 a mean annual salary/wage higher than the mean annual salary/wage of all US employees ($47,230). Thus, the overall conclusion that can be drawn from the above analysis is that the U.S. lodging industry despite its nature of being a labor-intensive service industry, provided in 2014 some
487,000 jobs that paid a higher mean annual wage/salary than that of the mean annual wage/salary of all U.S. occupations. Furthermore, the majority of employees in these jobs, are highly skilled career employees who have “earned their stripes” by starting their employment at the bottom of the organizational ladder earning minimum wages and climbing up over a few years. This should be well remembered when the industry is accused of employing low paid and unskilled workers in dead-end jobs. As was the case with foodservice employees, I invite my colleagues in other parts of the world to conduct similar studies and determine if the phenomenon described here is common elsewhere. I would also like to encourage researchers in the tourism industry to study this issue and determine once and for all the status of salaries and wages in the tourism industries, worldwide. References Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015. May 2014 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: AICS 721100 – Traveller Accommodation, Retrieved from www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3-722000.htm (accessed 16.8.15). Pizam, A., 2015. Editorial: Is the foodservice industry composed of only low-paid and unskilled jobs? Int. J. Hosp. Manage. 50.
Editor-in-Chief Abraham Pizam University of Central Florida, United States