How Much Should Corporate Event Planners Make?
Corporate event planners oversee business functions ranging from annual dinners, stakeholder meetings, trade shows and new hire seminars. Maintaining and overseeing everything to do with an organization's event calendar can be a full-time job, but event planners also have a number of factors to sort through that impact their own livelihoods. Salaries for corporate event planners can hinge significantly on the industry in which the planner is employed as well as in what part of the country the planner works.
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East Coast Influence
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Corporate event planners on the East Coast should expect to earn the highest salaries in the country, according to a May 2010 Occupational and Employment Wages survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Event planners in the District of Columbia earned the highest salaries, at $61,400. Employers in New Jersey and Massachusetts paid salaries that were close, at $56,410 and $56,130 respectively. In New York, annual mean wages for the profession were $55,730 at the time of the survey. Hawaii's event planners took fifth place for the highest salaries, at $54,130.
High Employment, High Salaries
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Event planners working in one of the five states the BLS lists as the top per-capita employers for the profession could expect higher than average salaries. All five states topped the national median, though some by more than others. California was the largest per-capita employer of event planners, offering an above-average annual mean wage of $51,630. New York, the fourth highest paying state in the profession, was the second largest employer for the field. Texas had the third most event planners in the country, with annual mean wages of $45,710. Illinois was home to the fourth largest contingent and paid an above-average $50,340. Florida, with the fifth largest number of event planners, paid just over the national median with $45,310.
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Choosing an Industry
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The industry in which an event planner works has a dramatic effect on salary expectations. The telecommunications industry paid its event planners the highest salaries, at $71,090. Event planners working in the nondepository credit intermediation industry had the second highest salaries, at $69,770, followed by those in the semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing industry, at $68,430. While business, professional and labor unions were the largest employers of event planners, their above-average salaries of $53,300 didn't make the BLS top five. Event planners employed by the traveler accommodation industry, the second-largest employer in the field, earned below-average wages of $44,800.
Summary
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Corporate event planners numbered approximately 56,950 at the time of the BLS survey, with an overall median nationwide salary of $45,260. In the 90th percentile of the profession, the highest-paid event planners received $76,840. The lowest rung of event planners, in the 10th percentile, received $27,090.
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