Ethics and compliance positions are taking on increasing importance within organizations worldwide. That’s according to a survey conducted by Salary.com and the nonprofit Ethics Officer Association, which shows top ethics executives are garnering salaries commensurate to those of Chief Information Officers.
The 2005 EOA Survey of Ethics & Compliance Officer Jobs shows total compensation for individuals holding ethics and compliance officer jobs in corporate America approaching $750,000. The executives are also receiving significant long-term incentives, such as non-qualified stock options, incentive stock options, and restricted stock.
Kilmartin
"Today, our compensation team answers more questions about ethics and compliance jobs than any other profession, which validates the significance of the job title within corporate America today," said Joseph Kilmartin, director of surveys at Salary.com. "It is likely that the ethics and compliance profession will become more important in the years to come with stricter corporate governance in place."
The EOA says evidence of the growth in importance and number of ethics and compliance positions available is supported by the fact that its membership has doubled over the past five years.
Darcy
"If the [U.S. Sentencing Commission’s] Federal Sentencing Guidelines issued in November 1991 created the ethics profession, Sarbanes-Oxley created an entire industry," said Keith Darcy, executive director of the EOA. "The new standards of doing business, introduced by legislators, regulators and prosecutors over the past several years have made the skills and experiences necessary to manage these risks by ethics and compliance officers much more important."
"The value placed on the Ethics and Compliance Officer profession has grown significantly as a result of numerous accounting scandals in corporate America that today are still being felt for the irrefutable damage caused to employees, investors and all businesses," according to Patrick Gnazzo, senior vice president of business practices and chief compliance officer of Computer Associates.
The survey is based on responses from 109 companies, two-thirds of which have annual revenues of more than $10 billion.
To order copies of the survey, see the box above, right.
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