Are you earning what you’re really worth?

An HR professional doing the same job as you might be paid $90,000 more across town

Are you earning what you’re really worth?
Fair pay has long been at the heart of HR’s role in the workplace - but HR professionals themselves can face a whopping pay gap with their peers.

Salary data from Hays reveals the most lucrative HR roles - and a salary divide of up to $100,000 in one top position.

In the Greater Toronto Area, a vice president with a generalist background typically earns $120,000 to $160,000; however, their salary can vary from $110,000 to $200,000.

The most lucrative job may be as a compensation and benefits manager: in Toronto, they typically earn $100,000-$120,000, while in Calgary, the pay bracket is even higher at $130,000-$150,000. 

A Toronto change manager in organizational development typically earns $90,000 to $110,000, and a generalist or recruiting manager earns $85,000 to $110,000. An HRIS manager typically gets paid $80,000 to $90,000.

Salaries in Montréal are generally on par with Toronto, while HR professionals in Ottawa are often paid the least, behind Vancouver and Calgary.

So how do you go about ensuring you’re earning at the top end of your pay band?

“What determines a salary increase is things like getting projects completed and hitting objectives and company performance,” says Hays regional director Louisa Benedicto.

“Depending on where you are in the country, the company performance is definitely going to make a difference to whether or not you’re getting that salary increase.”

There’s also a shift in what’s expected from an HR professional, from “personnel department” to someone who can boost a company’s profit.

“Within HR, you’re going to see a difference in the levels of the increases, based on whether or not their role is impacting the bottom line.”

Benedicto recommends building strong networks, keeping up with market trends, and attending conferences to stay updated on HR’s transition.

“Challenging the status quo within an organisation of how things have been done versus how things are moving forward is really key, because HR is one of those departments that can get left behind if you as an individual are not challenging the business and getting investment and putting systems online, or looking at better ways to attract talent, or looking at ways to improve the efficiency of the induction process to get people more productive faster.”


Related stories:
​What are you really worth?
Do ‘beautiful’ employees really get paid more?
 

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