Issue 32: Chief of Staff Compensation Report 2023
The results of our 2nd annual Chief of Staff Compensation survey are in!
Welcome back, aspiring and current Chiefs of Staff!
This week’s issue will be the last of the year and we’ll resume publishing in the new year. Our compensation issue tends to be the most anticipated one of the year so without further ado, we present to you the results of our 2023 Chief of Staff Compensation Survey:
In this year’s survey, we polled over 400 Chiefs of Staff (100+ more than last year’s survey), with a majority of responses from the US. You can download the full report above and we’ll highlight a few interesting points in today’s issue.
📣💖 HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you and shoutout to D'azhane (Dee) Cook for setting up the survey, collating the data, and putting it all together in this beautiful presentation. If you’re looking for a no-code expert and someone who can take your operations from 0 to 1, I cannot recommend working with Dee enough. I had the pleasure of working with her full time at On Deck and now in these project settings. Feel free to reach out to her directly at contact@dazhanecook.com.
How Much Does a Chief of Staff Make?
In the last two months, we surveyed over 400 current Chiefs of Staff to help both current and aspiring Chiefs of Staff know their market value and use this information to help negotiate or re-negotiate their salaries.
The full report is available for download in the link at the top of this newsletter, but in this issue, we’ll be highlighting a few specific trends and points of interest. While we did survey APAC and EMEA Chiefs of Staff, the sample sizes were a bit too small to draw any meaningful conclusions so we stuck to US based data for this year’s report.
The gender wage gap is still there, though thankfully getting better - In our survey, women are on average earning .95 cents for every dollar made by their male counterparts, which is more more equal than our survey results last year where women were making about 63% what their male peers were making.
We do realize that our survey sample is just a small percentage of the Chiefs of Staff that exist in the US, but thankfully this upward trend gives us some hope. We also had almost 3x the number of female respondents over male respondents so that’s a point to keep in mind when looking at this comparison as well.
There is also more slicing we could do when it comes to ethnicity vs salary as well. Respond to this email if you want to see that broken down too!
You don’t need an MBA to be a Chief of Staff - Time and time again I’m asked if you need to have an MBA to make yourself a more competitive candidate. Looking at our data, majority of Chiefs of Staff don’t have an MBA! Most folks do have a Bachelor’s Degree so it seems like having at least an undergraduate degree serves most Chiefs of Staff well, but beyond that, it’s not a necessity to have any further education. The salary averages don’t vary too much between a Bachelors vs. Masters vs. MBA.
Chief of Staff: Table for 1 - We’ve heard it time and time again, but being a Chief of Staff can be a lonely role. Even at larger sized companies of 200+ employees, a Chief of Staff can still be a singular hire as evidenced by our survey results below. That’s why we always suggest that Chiefs of Staff look externally from their organizations to find peers and support.
We’re a bit biased, but we think that the Ask a Chief of Staff community is the best place find peers and a personal advisory board to help you become even more successful and effective in the role. There’s still time to join us before the year ends and prices go up. AaCoS members get access to exclusive workshops with industry leaders, peer to peer networking, a mentorship directory with current and former Chiefs of Staff, in person events, and more!
For the full report, download the Chief of Staff Compensation Survey PDF at the top of this newsletter. What surprised you? What other questions do you have? Reply to this newsletter and we can do a follow up with further insights from our data!
If you’ve enjoyed this issue, consider subscribing and sharing. Additionally, feel free to reply to this email with feedback on whether this was helpful to you and any suggestions you might have.
PS: I’m going to work hard to keep the content in my newsletter free so that it’s accessible for everyone, but if you want to help support my writing endeavors, you can buy me a matcha or upgrade to a paid subscription 🍵
🎥 Upcoming Events and Workshops:
December 19th: Harnessing 2023 Reflections to Set Actionable Goals for 2024
January 16th: Prioritization for Chiefs of Staff
January 17th: SF Chief of Staff New Year Dinner Party (Free for AaCoS Community members but paid for non-members)
January 23rd: Fireside Chat with Laurie Arron
As a reminder, events and workshops are free for all Ask a Chief of Staff community members and the recordings will only be provided to members. Prices for the community are going up in the new year so join today to lock in our lowest ever rates!
Additional Chief of Staff Related Reads:
From Unpaid Intern to $260k as Chief of Staff
Data-Driven Decision Making: The Chief of Staff’s Secret Weapon
Hey- Are the Equity vs Company Stage (slide 9) USD amounts based on historic, current or future equity values? These could all be very different, so wonder how you're standardizing the data/ presentation.... Great survey! Thanks