This is the 2nd line of a conversation I have literally had hundreds of times before.
A client calls me and says they want to recruit a:
- Treasury Analyst
- Treasury Dealer
- Treasury Manager
- Assistant Treasurer
- Deputy Treasurer
- Group Treasurer
- Global Treasurer
Take your pick. But whatever it is, they then tell me how much they want to pay…
And I can already hear the ‘Family Fortunes aka Family Feud’ – NIL buzzer ringing in my head
UHHHHHH UHHHHHHH
The data says I should pay +\&% or some other crazy answer…
Now, their figure might’ve made perfect sense if it were 2016.
But I’d honestly say 90% of the time, the numbers I hear for salaries are just wrong…
And no, it’s not because companies are trying to save money or cut corners.
The real issue is that the supposed treasury market salary “data” is just 💩.
It’s made up!
Now, if you don’t believe me, I can share with you the name of a prominent salary survey company who approached me suggesting they run my Treasury Salary Survey for me.
I asked them where their data came from and they honestly said that they scrape the data from the salary ranges quoted in the job adverts on LinkedIn…
Then they report the mid-point as the average salary for that position!
And if the client they were working for didn’t have enough source data on LinkedIn they would get data from other sources such as:
- Indeed Job adverts
- Self-reported figures
- Glassdoor estimates
So, I’m not surprised when I see rival salary surveys listing salaries for:
Treasurer Salary Range – From £130k to £160k or Global Treasurer £180k+.
To me, that’s essentially signalling: We don’t have a clue!
But we can pretend to the market that our Salary Guide provides expert insights into candidate expectations and recruitment trends across industries…
But it doesn’t. It’s completely fabricated. Or in simpler terms, BS.
And that’s where the problem starts.
When a company prices a role based on that kind of info, the market doesn’t suddenly become “short of talent”…
The market behaves rationally.
The wrong people apply. The right people don’t.
The role sits open. And frustration builds.
Eventually someone says;
“There just aren’t any good candidates out there!”
But in reality, the candidates are there. They’re just not interested at that price.
Recently Katie had a client who wanted to recruit a London-based Treasury Manager for £70,000.
She explained the current average a UK Treasury Manager is £83,443 plus bonus and allowances.
Essentially, per this article, asking for a below-average manager.
And if you’re paying below the market, you are, by definition, shopping below the market.
You may still hire someone, but you’re not buying what you think you’re buying.
The same thing happens in other markets such as the USA…
We often get requests from US clients who say;
“I want a Treasury Manager for $110,000 when the average is $126,330”
OR
“I want a Global Treasurer for $200,000 when the average is $290,044”
And that’s where the survey gives us the power if you like as we have the real insights into the salaries of treasury professionals because we are actually surveying the market and…
OUR DATA IS REAL!
Then we have the complication of Benchmarking Job Titles!
When you factor in what most salary surveys ignore:
- Scope – A Treasury Manager running a small domestic cash function is not the same as one managing international liquidity, debt, risk and a team.
- Location – The cost of living whether it’s in London, New York or Brussels is massively different!
- Working patterns – Five days in the office now commands a premium. Hybrid and remote have changed things.
In other words, the title tells you almost nothing.
That’s why to benchmark properly, you need real people in real roles, understanding what they actually do, who they manage, where they sit in the business and what it really takes to replace them…
You can’t just pluck averages from the internet.
So when we are running the survey I use my experience of over 30 years in Treasury recruitment to work out which category a survey participant fits into.
Because broader questions like “What does a Treasury Manager earn in the UK?” aren’t that useful.
The real question should be:
“What does this Treasury Manager, doing this job, in this location, with this scope, need to be paid for the market to take it seriously?”
Get that right, and hiring becomes faster, calmer and far more predictable.
Now, if you want better data, it starts with better inputs…
So, if you haven’t already, please take just a couple of minutes to fill out our Treasury Salary Survey and help us build something based on real roles, real pay and real market conditions.
I’ll be updating the current stats in February and sharing them with everyone who takes part in our EXCLUSIVE 6-MONTHLY GLOBAL TREASURY SALARY SURVEY so everyone benefits.
You can CLICK HERE to fill out the Treasury Salary Survey.
Regards,
Mike
P.S. If you’re struggling to attract the right level of treasury talent, or wondering whether the number you’ve been given is actually realistic, ➡️CLICK HERE ⬅️ to utilise our salary survey scroller.
