Salary of a Focus Group Leader

Focus group leaders direct discussion using a set of pre-determined questions.

Focus groups allow people to express opinions about services, products, concrete ideas and abstract theories. Virtually any topic has potential as a subject for focus group discussion. Trained leaders help direct the discussion to explore a predetermined set of questions, and trained leaders earn high salaries in this professional occupation. While conducting what appears to group members as a general discussion, the leader expertly guides the members to explore possible answers to important questions about marketing or product development.

Research and Marketing Companies

Marketing and survey researchers work with private firms under contract to companies, nonprofits and government agencies to investigate questions involving both qualitative and quantitative study. Focus groups contribute to the qualitative side of the research, allowing the participants to put a personal face on statistical information. Focus group leaders and market researchers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, earned a median annual wage between $55,570 and $77,170 in 2008. Computer-oriented work earned top take-home pay, and leaders employed in marketing work with companies involved in management, technical consulting and scientific services earned the lowest annual pay.

Corporations

Corporations use focus group leaders to evaluate product design and use. Focus groups also help companies in making decisions related to human resource management, including hiring and employee evaluations. Focus group leaders working in corporations as development managers, hospital evaluators, training leaders and employment service staff earned a median annual wage between $45,470 and $97,630 in 2008. Leaders specializing in the computer industries and company management earned the top wages. Employment specialists received the lowest annual pay in the same year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ethnographic and Education

Survey researchers who lead focus groups and are employed by colleges, universities and professional schools took home an annual mean wage of $44,080 in 2010, as shown in data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Ethnographers working as college and university researchers conduct focus groups on a scholarly level involving questions related to life and work, including how people deal with change, aging and life conflicts. Focus group leaders in these positions earn pay as post-secondary instructors with an annual median pay of $79,960 in 2010, according to the BLS. Anthropology teachers in the top 90 percentile earned $128,690 in the same year, while entry-level ethnography staff at the college level took home a salary of $41,320.

Government Agencies

All levels of government use focus group leaders, but the responsibilities of most staff at the state and local levels include other, unrelated duties, in addition to group facilitation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual income of $70,430 in 2008 for local government focus-group staffing related to human resources training and development. Focus group leaders concentrating on employment, placement and recruitment work made only $38,970 at the state level in the same year. Local governments paid staff focused on leadership study a median annual salary of $52,080 in 2008, while leaders employed at the federal level in human resources assistance made $40,334 in 2009. Federal staffing focused on group insight research involved with human resource management earned $81,837 in the same year.

References

• Lehigh University -- Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Conducting a Focus Group
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Human Resources, Training, and Labor Relations Managers and Specialists
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Market and Survey Researchers
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary
• UCLA Center for Health Policy Research:Focus Group Research on Californians Between 200% -- 275% of the Federal Poverty Level -- Health Insurance Issues Report
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Federal Government

Resources

• New York -- Shopping: Group Thinker
• HowTo.gov: Focus Groups