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Usability Salary Survey 2002

Here are the results of the salary survey for usability/HCI professionals conducted by myself and another CHIWEB member - Jeremy Harrington in October 2002.

The average salary for usability professionals in the US was $78,999. This is fairly consistent with findings from previous studies done in the last couple of years:

October 2002 Salary Survey Results

Annual gross salary by country (USD) Annual gross salary by country (LOCAL CUR)

United States |*|
Canada *
Japan ^
Europe #
Australia @

78,999
45,525
61,647
46,332
51,990
Canada * CAD
Japan ^ JPY
Europe # EUR
Australia @ AUD
70,915
7,532,646
46,476
91,974
Total 240 respondents: United States 158, Canada 8, Japan 2, Europe 29, Australia 8

Average experience(years)
United States |*|
Canada *
Japan ^
Europe #
Australia @
5
5
5
5
3
Total 240 respondents: United States 158, Canada 8, Japan 2, Europe 29, Australia 8

Average contractor / consultant rate (USD)
United States |*|
Canada *
Japan ^
Europe #
Australia @
98
105
134
111
83
Total 240 respondents: United States 158, Canada 8, Japan 2, Europe 29, Australia 8

Salaries by years of experience for US usability professionals
1 years
2-4 years
5-7 years
8-10 years
11-15 years
16-26 years
USD62,727
USD66,902
USD92,211
USD93,200
USD 70,192
USD112,333
Total 158 US respondents. Note breakdown only possible for US due to higher response rate

Notes:

* Whilst there was only a sample size of 8 for Canada, there was little variance between earnings which ranged from USD31,250-60,444.

^ 2 responses were received from India and 1 from Singapore. As salaries for India were substantially lower than those for Japan, these were not included as they would have skewed the results for Asia. Only 1 person from India stated their annual salary which was US8800.

# There was no significant difference between UK and rest of Europe results (and as such these have been consolidated for easier comparison with other studies - refer www.nngroup.com/reports/salary).

@ Results from Australia not likely to be representative of the broader population as there was only a small sample size (n=8) and earnings ranged from USD27,000-86,509. I believe the top figure is not an error based on my understanding of Australian UE professionals are earning.

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