It is natural that, as a worker acquires professional experience, his career will have more and more weight in the remuneration he receives to the detriment of his training, which was his gateway to the world of work. But, what importance do one and the other have in the configuration of the professional’s salary? The consulting firm Mckinsey & Company has carried out a study to try to answer this question.
The weight of experience. The American consultancy has studied several labor markets and has concluded that in Western countries the weight of work experience in the salary of workers throughout their lives is around 46%, while the knowledge associated with training they provide the remaining 54%.
These percentages are not constant throughout the life of the worker, and as he progresses in his career, the weight of experience in his remuneration grows. Thus, while in the fifth year of work education is still a dominant factor, and 80% of the salary depends on it, from the tenth year that value is reduced to 60%, at 20 years it drops to 50% and 30 years falls to 40%.
Continuous training. The study indicates that the value of training does not only refer to the education for entry into the world of work, whether university or FP, but also to that which professionals develop throughout their careers in parallel to the performance of his work. That is why its weight remains at high values throughout the entire trajectory of the workers.
Differences by sectors. The study points out that the specified average percentages vary considerably by sector. Those in which education is an important barrier to enter the labor market, as in the case of doctors or lawyers, whose training has to be accredited in order to be able to work, the weight of this variable in their salary is greater than in other jobs without these conditions or less qualified.
In technology workers, for example, the weight of experience in salary is 27% higher than the average, so that, in the case of these professionals, their work history would account for 67% of their salary throughout their careers. his life, while training only 33%.
Country differences. The study authors have investigated four countries: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and India. In the first three, the results obtained have been very similar, which has led them to conclude that in the rest of the West the figures must be very similar.
The dissonant note is put by India, in which the weight of experience is much greater in the salary of workers. In this country, experience would determine 58% of income throughout the professional’s life. This is due, the study points out, to the fact that access to higher education remains a challenge there (only 12% of the population had university studies in 2020), so that the professional career weighs much more than training.
Image | Rum Lach
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism