IMD Buried $10K Fall In MBA Pay Last Year

At London Business School, average starting salaries last year rose slightly to $121,902 (£ 74,950) from $118,612 (£72,964) a year earlier. Median sign-on bonuses dipped a little to $31,878 (£19,600) from $32,760 (£20,142) in 2012. Those reported numbers by London Business School are adjusted to reflect purchasing power parity, however. In general, non-U.S. schools are not nearly as transparent with either their admission or pay and placement stats as the top U.S. MBA programs.

IMD’S FULL STATEMENT

The complete response from IMD follows:

“The 2013 data – average salary: $121,500 (€92,700), median salary: $118,000 (€89,000), sign on bonus: $26,500 (€20,000) – shows a reduction for average salary by $10,066 (€9,404), for median salary by $1,049 (€3,438) and for average sign on bonus by $6,394 (€5,564). A detailed analysis would have to focus on industry composition, geography and exchange rate factors; accounting for the latter alone, for instance, reduces the cut in median salary from 2012 to 2013 from €3,438 to €815.

“While a detailed assessment of this sort is beyond what an overview should provide, we decided to present the data in a more comprehensive and indexed form in next year’s publication. At the same time, we would like to advise that given the average age of our participants, the primary objectives at this stage of their careers and the relative small size of our program it is fair to expect higher fluctuations in the average salary relative to other schools.

“Also, according to Forbes’ biannual ranking of years to payback on MBA investment, IMD’s MBA program ranked first in 2011 and 2013.”

DON’T MISS: WHY IMD IS REPORTING THREE-YEAR PAY STATS