There has been clear salary inflation across the ETF and Digital Assets industry during 2021, the average salary increasing by 11% and bonuses by 10%, according to a global salary survey led by Blackwater Search & Advisory, a leading ETF and Digital Assets consulting and recruiting firm in Europe.
The Survey conducted with over 3,000 individuals across the globe, shows how a lot of the salary inflation is been driven at the junior level where since the last survey published by the firm in 2020, total compensation at the Analyst level has jumped by 42%.
“There is a clear fight for young talent in the industry and firms are finding they need to meet the demands of candidates in order to attract the best talent. This is being reflected in the figures”.
“disappointingly, despite the rhetoric from companies on equal pay, there is still a clear gap (16%) in terms of how women and men are paid within the ETF and Digital Assets industry”
“We sincerely hope that come the next survey this gap will have closed fully”.
Blackwater’s Founding Partner, Michael O’Riordan
People say ETFs are sold, not bought. And it seems ETF issuers agree with this saying, as Sales and Marketing compensation levels have increased by 16% since Blackwater’s last survey. And if you are looking for a “hot role” then Capital Markets is the place to be. As more Mutual Fund managers enter the ETF space, typically the first hire they look to make is a Capital Markets person, which means that there will be a fight for talent for this role and compensation levels will rise, concludes the Blackwater’s Salary Survey report.
KEY FINDINGS
- The average total compensation across the industry is $265k.
- The average bonus is 68% of base salary.
- The US is the country paying the highest compensation, on average.
- 37% higher than in Europe and 34% than in Asia.
- On average women are paid 16% less than men across the industry.
- Heads of Businesses are on average getting paid $911k.
- The highest paying roles are those within Trading, on average paying $407k.
- The lowest paying roles are Operations, on average paying $145k.
- Those at the start of their careers i.e., Analysts, are on average getting paid $87k and those at the top i.e., Managing Directors are getting paid $657k.
- Companies paying the highest compensation levels are AP/Market.
- Makers and companies paying the lowest are Data Vendors.