The median salary for top-level public relations professionals dropped $1,000 this year because more younger women are entering the field and replacing senior men, a survey said Monday.
”The feminization of PR” was cited as the major reason for the salary decline; last year, salaries increased $2,000.
The median salary for top public relations practitioners decreased from $44,000 in 1984 to $43,000 in 1985, according to the 21st annual survey of the profession by PR Reporter, a weekly newsletter based here.
The survey defines top-level practitioners as those in supervisory positions, excluding account executives.
”Senior males of the post-World War II era are being replaced by younger persons, of whom an increasing number are women,” the survey said.
The median salary for men is $50,000, but only $35,000 for women, the survey said. Women account for 40 percent of all public relations
practitioners. In 1978, women accounted for slightly more than 20 percent of practitioners.
Salaries of women in the 25-to-29 age group were higher than men`s by $2,300, but men hold higher salaries in all other age groups, the survey said. Men in the 50-to-59 age group make $25,000 more than women, but the percentage of men in that age group has decreased to 20 percent in 1985 from 24 percent in 1981.
The survey received 830 responses from a sample of 4,000 top-level public relations practitioners.
