2007/2008 Survey Report on Accounting & Finance Personnel Compensation

Salary increases for Durable Goods Manufacturing and Health Care groups take the lead among industry sectors.; Almost half of surveyed employees received bonuses last year.

ROCHELLE PARK, N.J., (November 15, 2007) – Watson Wyatt Data Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Watson Wyatt Worldwide, today announced the publication of its 2007/2008 Survey Report on Accounting & Finance Personnel Compensation, now in its ninth edition.

Overall, salaries and total compensation increased 3.5 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively, within organizations responding to both this and last year’s survey. This compares to the 3.1 percent and 3.2 percent increase in salaries and total compensation experienced in 2006.

The report covers a full range of accounting and finance personnel, including executive/fiscal control, accounting, shareholder relations, audit, budget/planning, cash management/investment, credit, financial analysis, payroll, risk management/insurance and tax.

A total of 27 individual positions (within the overall sample) received salary and/or total compensation increases that exceeded the overall salary/total cash compensation increase by 25 percent or more.  A total of five positions received salary increases of 7.8 percent or more, as listed below:

• Top Strategic/Long-Range Planning Executive

• Chief Financial Officer/Top Financial Executive

• Top Financial Analysis Executive

• Top Shareholder Relations Executive

• Shareholder Relations Administrator

Salary increases within the industry sectors remained consistent in 2007, ranging from 2.8 percent to 3.8 percent as compared to 2.6 percent to 3.8 percent in 2006. The most significant change in salary was experienced in both Durable Goods Manufacturing and Health Care, at 3.8 percent, as compared to salary increases in 2006 of three percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

Only slight differences in salary increases existed among the five regions. The Northeast, Southeast and West Coast regions experienced a 3.6 percent increase, while the North Central and South Central regions experienced a 3.4 percent increase. Average total cash compensation increases for all five regions ranged from four percent to a high of 4.6 percent in the Northeast Region.

Overall, 45.7 of the employees covered by this survey received some form of bonus/incentive payment in 2006. The percentage of employees receiving a bonus varies significantly between salary levels. While 81.3 percent of employees being paid at least $200,000 received a bonus, only 23.7 percent of employees paid under $30,000 received a bonus.

Bonus prevalence showed only a slight variation by region, with 47.6 percent of employees in the Northeast region receiving bonuses at the high end (average bonus was 21.2 percent of salary), and 47.6 percent of South Central region workers receiving bonuses at the low end (bonuses averaging 17.3 percent of salary). Other regional bonus payments ranged from 17.6 percent of salary in the North Central to 18 percent of salary for West Coast employees.

With the exception of the Retail and Wholesale Trade Sector, only modest variations in bonus prevalence and average bonus payments among industry sectors were experienced. The Retail and Wholesale Trade Sector experienced a sharp decline in the prevalence of bonuses paid (50.4 percent vs. 67.0 percent) and in the average bonus payments (15.2 percent vs. 16.8 percent). The Banking and Finance Sector experienced the most significant increase in the percentage of employees receiving bonus payments (67.5 percent vs. 61.5 percent).  However, the average bonus paid (to those employees receiving a bonus) experienced no variation.