Determinants of salary compensation in the Dutch

The Dutch purchasing profession is on the move. The strategic importance of procurement related activities is more and more widely accepted. The responsibilities of purchasing professionals have steadily increased over the last decade. Formerly, procedurement departments were often regarded as commercial staff departments. Nowadays this had shifted, which resulted in bigger responsibilities within organizational structures. Also the remuneration of purchasing professionals has increased considerably over the last years. No adequate researches have been done about the determinants of base salary of purchasing professionals working within the Netherlands. This research will reveal several surprising results about procedurement professionals' remuneration. Method In March 2007 a questionnaire has been sent to 11.857 purchasing professionals by email. The response was fantastic and resulted in a usable data set of 2.171 respondents. The size and scope of such a survey had never been so wide as compared to earlier researches on base salary compensation in the Dutch procedurement profession. Most of the responts (69.1%) were highly educated. Furthermore 45.5% of the respondents were working for large organizations. Surprising results No significant difference was found between male and female remuneration. This was most surprising, because in the Netherlands it is often acknowledged that women earn less than men. But the results of the survey indicate that the differences in remuneration of men and women can fully be explained by other personal, functional and organizational characteristics. In some cases it would be profitalbe to follow specific procedurement education at well known education centres like the NEVI in the Netherlands. Following a NEVI MIL of NEVI 1 course seems to have a negative impact on one's earnings as compared to purchase professionals who did nog follow any NEVI education. Following such education could signal low capabilities possibly. On the other hand a NEVI 2, NEVI 3 or ISFAH education do pay off, respectivily + 3.0%, +6.9% and +8.7%. Following an APICS education seems to have no effect on one's denoted base salary. From a labour mobility perspective, it can be stated that every switch from employer within the procedurement professions results in a salary increase of 1.3%. Also working abroad has a significant imact (+5.4%) on purchasers' earnings.