What is the Average Group Product Manager Salary?
In modern companies, group product managers (GPM) play an important role in leading a group of product managers to oversee their product management efforts. Many product managers target this position because of companies’ attractive remuneration packages for their duties and responsibilities. A group PM salary package includes other extra benefits such as cash bonuses, commission, tips, and profit-sharing.
Is your ambition to become a group PM or chief product officer in your company?
Then you must know the average salary of a group PM so that it helps you to negotiate your salary with the companies according to the market average. This article provides information on average salaries reported in job alerts on job research sites like Glassdoor, Comparably, and PayScale. We also explain the factors affecting the average group PM salaries and compare their salaries and a senior product manager.
Average Group Product Manager Salary Estimates
Direct advertising of salaries is not a practice among many companies, including tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Paypal, etc. Different job research sites provide average salaries based on self-reviews from people who work as group PMs in those companies. Therefore, there are slight differences between the average salaries and benefits reported. Some research sites indicate the estimate’s reliability, while some do not. Thus, It is important to compare figures from different research sites to conclude the average rate.
Glassdoor reports that considering all years of experience, the average salary of group PM is $171,718 per year.
Credits: Glassdoor
It includes base pay of $151,839 and $19,805 additional pay, including cash bonuses, commissions, tips, and profit-sharing. Nonetheless, many companies like Intuit, Google, and Adobe offer salaries above this average. A group PM of Google, Intuit, and Adobe gets an average salary of $292,268, $221,567, and $215,640 per year. However, Oracle and Microsoft seem to be paying Group PMs below-average salaries.
According to PayScale, a group PM makes an average salary of $151,114 per year. A group PM with 1-4 years of experience gets a salary of $134,320, while a group PM with 10-19 years of experience gets a salary of $172,814. The additional compensation includes tips, bonuses, and overtime pay. However, these estimates change according to several factors.
Meanwhile, Comparably indicates that the average salary of a Group PM in tech in the US earns $184,242 per year, and the salary ranges from $60,000 to $343,000. It also reports that they get a bonus of 15% of their salary each year. Again these estimates vary according to several factors like the location, experience, and education which we discuss in the next section.
Factors That Affect Group PM Salary
The average salary of a GPM is subject to significant changes because of several factors. Location, educational qualification, years of experience, industry, and additional responsibilities are the major factors that affect these figures. Let’s dive into more details.
Location
The cost of living in cities is the major reason behind average group product manager salaries fluctuations. For example, suppose you live in a city like Dallas, Texas, which has a lower cost of living than other cities in the US. In that case, the average group PM salary is $131,233 per year, around 30% less than the average salary across the US. But if you live in New York City, where the cost of living is higher, the salary is $172 755 per year.
Also, if you live in a country with high inflation, your currency has a lower value than the USD. Therefore, salaries are lower with the inflation rate unless employers adjust the salaries according to the inflation.
Based on the job location, the demand for the job vary. If the city does not have enough group PMs to satisfy the demand, the salaries are higher in such cities. Furthermore, some companies cut down the additional compensations if working in the remote mode. For example, they cut down fuel allowances and food allowances. On the other hand, companies pay additional allowances if there are difficulties like lack of transport or internet and offer relocation allowances for group PMs with higher demand.
Education
Many groups of PMs possess at least a bachelor’s degree, and some go on to have advanced degrees like Masters, MBAs, or PhDs. Having a degree has less impact on Group PM salaries. However, it helps Group PMs lay a solid foundation for the career path by getting essential technical, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
If you have a basic degree, it is easy to start your career path if you have a basic degree. Some companies could pay more for people with degrees if they have studied with more career-focused components than theoretical components such as internships, research, and projects. Those practical units help them build essential skills relevant to the Group PM position, such as communication, collaboration, research, and presentation skills because recruiters tend to focus on applying what they have learned in their degrees rather than how they have scored in their degree.
A key thing to note is that some employers tend to pay more for people who have degrees from reputed and competitive universities like Harvard, MIT, and Cornell because their degree content is valuable and is in higher demand.
Obtaining relevant professional certifications is another major reason behind higher salaries. For example, in the IT industry, people who have specialized technical certifications like Amazon cloud certifications, Google data science certifications, and ITIL demand higher pay than those who have not obtained them because these are essential skills nowadays.
Apart from that, taking online courses and training like product manager courses from online sites like Udemy, General Assembly, and Scrum Alliance helps you stand out from the crowd to showcase your skills and demand a higher salary.
Experience
Another key factor that decides a Group PM’s salary is the years of experience. As with many other roles, a Group PM with more experience gets a higher salary than group PMs with only a few years of experience. With experience, PMs get to work on several projects and build out essential skills like leadership, team management, and problem-solving skills that recruiters are looking after for this role. Thus, their demand increases with the obtained skillset leading to higher salary payments.
For example, Glassdoor indicates that a group PM with 0-1 year of experience earns an average salary of $171 644 per year. In comparison, a one with more than 15 years of experience earns a salary of $185 416 per year. In addition, some companies offer a higher salary for someone promoted to the Group Manager PM from a junior position in the same company than one who joined from outside.
Industry
Group PM salaries also change according to the industry they are in. If the industry has a higher growth rate, the demand for this job role rises, leading to higher salaries. One thing to note is that, based on the industry, the duties, responsibilities, and work hours change. Group PMs in some industries expect to work long hours to fulfill certain duties. Hence, they earn higher compensation than the average rate.
For example, the tech industry of the USA is a faster-growing industry with innovations, and the average salary of a GPM is $184,242 per year. Product managers of Banking and financial services earn around $88,204 per year, and a PM of an Energy and utilities earn around $119,000 per year.
Additional Responsibilities
Depending on the company and other circumstances, employers expect some Group PMs to take additional responsibilities. For example, they expect Group PMs to manage multiple product teams rather than one or handle more complex projects. If the PMs have a higher responsibility than the average, employers tend to pay a higher salary to compensate for the additional burden they have to take.
Group Product Manager Salary vs. Other Product Manager Salaries
Becoming a group product manager requires the right amount of experience as a product manager. The average product manager’s salary varies based on the level of seniority. One starts with becoming an associate product manager and progresses through the career path becoming a product manager, senior product manager, group product manager, and moves further to higher positions like a principal product manager and VP of product management.
On average, a product manager in the USA earns $119717 per year, while a senior product manager earns a salary of $147946 per year. If you compare the salaries of technical PMs, they earn around $118,147 of a base salary per year. These are entry-level roles and require less experience and fewer responsibilities than a group product manager. Once again, these estimates vary according to the above-discussed factors. These estimates show how much of a salary gap lies between these junior-level product management positions and group product management positions.
Average Group Product Manager Salary Key Takeaways
A Group PM is an important leadership position in many organizations. It is a position with higher responsibilities, and the right candidates often have a lot of experience and expertise in the field. According to several popular salary research sites, the salary of a GPM ranges from $145000 to $18900, and it varies according to several different factors such as the industry, education, experience, and location. There are also fluctuations in the salaries within each factor based on different reasons.
