Project Manager Salary: 2023 Guide to Knowing Your Worth

How much does a project manager make?

A project manager’s job is to manage different aspects of a project or business and ensure its completion on time. A project manager doesn’t necessarily get involved in hands-on tasks. However, they must have good knowledge of the tasks involved in the projects.

The yearly average project manager salary in the USA:

• Entry level project manager salary: USD 54,607
• USD 89,230 for mid-career project manager Salary
• USD 111,583 for Senior Project Manager Salary

In this blog, we will tell you the salary of project managers from construction project managers to technical project managers or associate project managers to help you give an overview of the industry.

This project manager salary blog will explore the following topics:

• What are the factors affecting project manager salary?
• What are the project management salary in unicorn companies?
• What are the salaries of project management in different industries?
• What are some high-paying cities for a project manager?
• What is a typical job description for a project manager?
• What are some strategies to earn more as a project manager?
• What are some high-paying project management jobs in 2023?

What Are the Factors Affecting Project Managers’ Salaries?

The salary of a project manager depends on various factors, such as:

• Education
• PMP certification
• Experience
• Job Specialization
• Team Size
• Industry
• Job Location
• Project Management Methodologies

Education

Project management is a vast field. It needs a minimum of 4 years’ bachelor’s degree in management or business to become an entry-level project manager. And according to Glassdoor, an entry-level project manager needs 3 years of experience to earn the average base salary.

And to get a higher salary, you must have a master’s degree in project management. The base salary of a project manager with a master’s degree is $120,000, which is much higher than a project manager with a bachelor’s degree.

PMP Certification

Becoming a certified project management professional helps you increase your compensation and acts as a proof of skill for potential employers.

A study conducted by Project Management Institute found that a candidate with a PMP certification earns 22% more than a candidate without a certificate.

A PMP certification is a standard in the project management industry to get ahead in their career.

In the USA, the median salary of a project manager with PMP certification is around USD 120k, which is 22% more than a candidate without a certificate.

However, PMP is not the only certification you can get. There are multiple other certifications.
Such as,

• Certification in Different Project Management Methodologies such as Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, etc.
• Certification in different industries such as CompTIA Project+ is for the information technology industry.

Years Of Experience

Your years of experience heavily affect your salary in the industry. As you get more experience in your job, your salary also increases.

We already pointed out that an experienced project manager with 10+ years of experience gets around USD 111,583 per month, which is close to double the salary of an entry-level project manager.

Specialization

There are several classifications of a project manager. And based on that your salary will also change.

The top classifications of project management job are:

• Project Manager
• Product Manager
• Portfolio Manager

Here are the job requirements and salary breakdown for each of the job profiles:

• Project Manager: Plan project milestones and coordinate with the team to delegate responsibilities and manage the project budget. The typical salary of a project manager is around USD 91,245 - USD 110,283.

• Portfolio Manager: Portfolio managers analyze projects to identify improvement opportunities to improve efficiency and project performance. The average salary of a portfolio manager is USD 140,780.

• Program Manager: Program managers are responsible for managing multiple similar projects called programs to improve business outcomes. The average program manager salary is $127,517.

Project Team Size

Team size also affects the income of a project manager. If the project manager has to manage a large team, they will get more salary,

According to a survey conducted by Project Management Institute, here’s the average project manager salary based on their team size:

Industry You Work In

The industry you work in also has a significant impact on the salary. Project managers in the tech and STEM industries are significantly paid higher than in any other industry because these industries are already in demand. In fact, studies show that 93% of STEM jobs provide more salary than any other industry.

Here are salaries for industries with top project management salaries:

Job Location

Like many industries, project management salary also gets heavily impacted based on your location. When you choose a location based on salary, you should consider the cost of living as well. Since the location with higher pay tends to have higher living expenses.

Here are the salaries for project managers in the top cities in the USA:

What Are the Project Management Salary in Unicorn Companies?

Here are some companies with maximum project management salaries:

What Does a Project Manager Do?

Here’s what a typical project management job description looks like:

Project Manager Responsibilities:

• Manage cross-discipline teams and ensure the project is on track
• Resolve project-related issues and ensure adherence to quality standards
• Prepare project reports and present them to stakeholders
• Coordinate with technical writers to prepare user manuals and technical documentation
• Identify and develop new processes to improve efficiency
• Provide customer assistance with projects
• Perform project evaluation and identify improvement opportunities

Project Manager Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or a master’s degree
• PMP Certification
• 1-2 years of experience in project management
• Knowledge of ERP implementation
• Manage project budgets

Strategies to Earn More as a Project Manager

Every project manager’s goal is to work on exciting projects and earn more.

But it may also happen that you are not closer to your benchmark number in terms of your salary.

How can you move up the ladder of getting more salary for your project management job?

Here are a few strategies that can help you earn more:

Pursue Industry-specific Education

According to a survey conducted by Project Management Institute, project managers who have a doctorate degree earns $16,000 more than project managers with a bachelor’s degree.

However, these statistics completely alters for project managers with a degree in project management. Industries prefer to hire people with industry-specific degrees such as engineering, healthcare, education, etc. And the salary bump you get for doing a project management degree is also very minuscule.

From these statistics, you can say that an industry-specific degree and knowledge are far more important than a project management degree. Candidates with industry-specific knowledge can directly apply their skills to managing multiple projects.

Keep Practicing Project Management Skills

The best way to earn more as a project manager is to keep building your skills. Manage more high-value projects build a team from scratch. The more your exercise your project management skills, your salaries will increase.

In the initial part of this guide, we have seen that the project manager’s salary steadily increases with experience. A 20+ years experienced project manager gets around $120,000 per year, which is more than double the salary of an entry-level project manager.

So, if you are a project manager, don’t worry too much about earning more. It will happen steadily as you grow in your career.

Get Project Management Certifications

In the USA, the median salary of a project manager with PMP certification is around USD 120k, which is 22% more than a candidate without a certificate.

There are multiple different certifications based on industry and locations which you can consider:

• PRINCE2 Certification
• Certified Associate in Project Management
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner
• PMI Risk Management Professional
• PMI Scheduling Professional
• PMI Professional in Business Analysis
• Microsoft Project certification

Move to Higher Paying Industry

If you are getting experience but still stuck in the same salary, you may switch to a high-income industry. For example, the insurance industry, consulting industry, and engineering industry are sectors with $150,000+ salaries for project managers compared to industries like marketing and education.

However, you need to contemplate if you’ll enjoy working in those sectors, since job satisfaction is far more important than salary.

What Are Some High Paying Project Management Jobs in 2023?

Project managers are necessary for every part of the industry. And from this blog, you already know the average salary of a project manager is excellent. But, some specialized industries pay better than other industries. Here are some exampled

1. Marketing Project Manager

• Average Salary: $58,107 per year

• Job Duties: The job of a marketing project manager is to oversee projects related to advertising and marketing while fulfilling common duties such as planning marketing campaigns, working with the marketing director to prepare budgets, reviewing conversation analytics, and identifying ways to optimize the campaigns to improve ROI

2. Project Management Consultant

• Average Salary: $81,716 per year
• Job Duties: A project management consultant is a highly-specialized professional, who has all the knowledge and resources to conduct a project effectively, such as planning, budgeting, organizing, delegating, motivating team members, and many more. Typically they work on advising clients on optimizing project performance and brainstorming unique ways to resolve problems.

3. Construction Project Manager

• Average Salary: $83,428 per year
• Job Duties: Most construction projects consist of functions like budgeting. Logistics, vendor management, labor management, team building, etc. And the construction project managers are responsible for managing all these functions efficiently.

4. PMO Manager

• Average Salary: $94,366 per year
• Job Duties: The role of a PMO (Project Management Office) manager is to manage the project managers who work with clients on behalf of the company. Their responsibilities include communicating with project managers to discuss best practices, report on metrics, and implement changes to policy or procedure as needed.

5. Engineering Project Manager

• Average Salary: $99,701 per year
• Job Duties: The primary responsibility of an engineering project manager is to oversee all the engineering projects of an organization. They schedule resources based on projects, prepare budgets, get involved in purchasing materials to ensure the budget stays within limits, and manage the progress of the overall projects.

6. IT Project Manager

• Average Salary: $100,456 per year
• Job Duties: An IT project manager manages projects related to information technology. It involves duties like talking to stakeholders and clients to understand project goals, identifying the project roadmap, building a project team, overseeing the project progress, and conveying the same to the stakeholders.

Key Takeaways:

Here are some key takeaways from the blog:

• The maiden salary of a project manager is around USD 89,230 per year.
• The salary of a project manager depends on many factors, such as industry, location, team size, company valuation, experience, etc.
• Cities like San Francisco will give the highest salary to a project manager

If you want to become an IT project manager or technical project manager, first, you have to create a stellar project manager resume from the Hiration Online Resume Builder tool.

And, If you want to prepare for an interview, you need to read the project manager interview questions.

We hope you got all the information about the project manager’s salary. If you have more questions, you can reach out to us at team@hiration.com, and we will help you with your queries.