Executive Summary
About the Survey:
This survey was administered December 2021 - January 2022 to
progressive and Democratic data, analytics, and technology staff,
largely reflecting respondents’ 2021 employment and salaries. Thanks to
everyone who participated and/or shared the survey!
How to use the results
There were 522 respondents recruited using snowball
sampling. The survey was announced on a few major progressive and
Democratic political and/or data email listservs and Slack channels, and
readers were encouraged to share the survey around their offices and
networks. This should not be considered a representative sample
of all people working in the industry. The n-size and results
as compared to previous year
surveys’ offer some consistency, particularly at the aggregate
level, but some experiences may not be represented.
This survey may be useful in evaluating salaries and roles of
individuals or workplaces, but a survey of this kind should be used with
care – your experience may be different.
Early salary surveys had heavy response rates among certain
demographics, while more recent years have seen some notable shifts. We
should be cautious in making assumptions about these demographic shifts.
The survey is anonymous, and we are not able to make assessments about
non-respondents. Some data has been obscured in this report due to small
n-sizes to protect anonymization (such as among certain demographic
categories).
Finally, although useful to benchmark, employers should NOT
determine a role’s salary based on this survey alone.
We’ve highlighted some findings of interest, but strongly encourage
you to review the full analysis.
About Respondents:
About half of respondents were women (44%). 47% were men. Eight
percent were non-binary.
Respondents were 70% white and 29% BIPOC.
The median age was 32 with 29% of respondents being between 25-29
and 27% were between ages 25 and 29.
Less than half of respondents’ (40%) families have been in the
United States for fewer than three generations.
61% of respondents identified as heterosexual/straight.
59% of respondents have a bachelor’s degree; 31% reported a
degree higher than a bachelor’s.
16% report having a disability (defined as “a physical or mental
impairment or medical condition that substantially limits a major life
activity”).
27% of respondents live in the DC area, followed by the New York
metro area at 10% and Chicago metro area at 7%.
Nearly all respondents (99%) were fully employed during the 2021
election cycle.
Salary: The median salary was
$98,000 and the average
salary was $106,449.
Compared to non-managers, managers with 1-4 staffers had a median
salary of ~$25K more and managers with 5+ staff had a median salary of
~$49K more.
BIPOC have a median salary of $102K versus white people’s median
salary of $86.5K.
Men and women had similar median salaries ($101K and $96K
respectively). Trans and nonbinary people had a lower median salary
($78K) than their cis colleagues ($100K).
Heterosexual people have a median salary of $101,833 and queer
people have a median of $90K.
People with disabilities have median salaries of $10K less than
non-disabled people, consistent with previous years.
Entry-level employees had a median salary of $66,000
(approximately $2K lower compared to 2020); mid-level employees $85,000
(~$3K higher); and senior / department-head employees $120,000 (~$10K
higher).
Skills + Tools:
Within the last year, a majority of respondents have either
transformed data/generated reports with SQL (67%), manage and review
others’ analysis or work (67%), created voter contact universes (48%),
or presented the results of an analysis for non-technical leadership
(48%).
Almost 79% of respondents learned the skills and tools they use
weekly at their current and/or previous job.
A majority of respondents consider themselves to be either
“intermediate” or “advanced” with Excel/Google spreadsheets (92%), SQL
(69%), and voter file management (63%).
Job Characteristics:
Among respondents, 57% said the primary focus of their
organization was data, analytics, or technology. This jumped to 90% for
their team and 93% for their role.
Respondents work at a variety of organizations, with vendors
(23%), issue or advocacy organizations (17%), analytics/polling firms
(16%), and other consulting firms (10%) making a majority of the
organizations represented.
A majority of respondents’ primary job function or primary
function of their team was general analytics or data science (22%),
general data management and reporting (16%), or Engineering / software
development (11%)
44% of respondents are managers. The likelihood of being a
manager did meaningfully vary by race and/or gender.
Other Findings:
If respondents were to leave the progressive/Democratic data
space, the top reasons were: for a better-paying job (39%); because they
feel stagnated or that there isn’t a clear next step in their career
(22%); for a better work/life balance (21%); due to burn out (20%); or
for better opportunities to learn and grow in other fields
(16%).
49% of respondents worked somewhere that required employees to be
vaccinated against COVID-19.
39% respondents work in a unionized workplace or have a
recognized bargaining unit. A 13 percentage point increase compared to
the 2020 survey. Among those respondents, a large majority (62%) work
someplace that has unionized within the past two years.
Notes: Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)
include those who identified as Black, Latinx, Hispanic, Asian, Native,
and people who selected multiple race categories. We report differences
between BIPOC and White respondents here to preserve anonymity.
Job Characteristics
Organization Type
How would you describe the organization?
|
|
Proportion
|
N
|
|
Vendor (i.e. technology vendor)
|
23%
|
118
|
|
Issue or advocacy organization
|
17%
|
89
|
|
Analytics / Polling firm
|
16%
|
82
|
|
Other consulting firm (media, field, digital, etc.)
|
10%
|
54
|
|
Non-issue-specific Independent Expenditure group (i.e. Super PAC or c4
organization)
|
8%
|
41
|
|
Labor union
|
7%
|
36
|
|
Party committee
|
7%
|
36
|
|
Government agency, contractor, or related employer
|
5%
|
27
|
|
Political campaign
|
1%
|
5
|
|
Other
|
7%
|
34
|
Primary Job Function
What is your primary job function? If in management, please
indicate the primary job function of your team.
|
|
Proportion
|
N
|
|
General analytics or data science
|
22%
|
113
|
|
General data management and reporting
|
16%
|
85
|
|
Engineering / software development
|
11%
|
59
|
|
Data infrastructure and processing
|
10%
|
54
|
|
Field / grassroots-focused data (e.g. VAN admin)
|
8%
|
40
|
|
Product / Project management
|
7%
|
39
|
|
Consulting / client relations
|
7%
|
37
|
|
Polling and Research
|
6%
|
31
|
|
Digital data and analytics
|
5%
|
24
|
|
Development / fundraising-focused data
|
2%
|
9
|
|
Other
|
6%
|
31
|
Seniority
How would you describe your level of seniority within the
organization?
|
|
Proportion
|
N
|
|
Entry-Level
|
12%
|
64
|
|
Mid-Level
|
38%
|
198
|
|
Senior-Level, but not Department Head
|
24%
|
123
|
|
Department Head
|
17%
|
91
|
|
Organization Head, President or C-Level
|
7%
|
34
|
|
Other
|
0%
|
1
|
|
Freelance
|
2%
|
11
|
In the appendix, you can view seniority by gender and race.
Management
How many staffers do you manage? Please include everyone who
reports “up the chain” to you, both directly or through layer(s) of
management.
|
|
Proportion
|
N
|
|
0 staffers
|
56%
|
290
|
|
1-4 staffers
|
27%
|
142
|
|
5-9 staffers
|
9%
|
49
|
|
10-14 staffers
|
5%
|
25
|
|
More than 15 staffers
|
3%
|
16
|
In the appendix, you can view management by gender and race.
Time Writing Code
What percentage of your time do you spend directly conducting
analysis or writing code - as opposed to other work such as managing
staff or collaborating with external partners or other
departments?
Overall
