At the end of 2024, the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) launched its first-ever Compensation and Benefits Benchmarking Study. Our goal was to create a resource that captures reliable data about wages, compensation, benefits, policies, and skills across the global scholarly communications workforce.
Salary transparency and benefits benchmarking are critical for professionals navigating their careers and for organizations making strategic HR decisions. Until now, there hasn’t been a dedicated, field-specific dataset for our community. We wanted to change that.
The study is designed to run annually, giving us an evolving picture of the industry and a way to track progress over time. Data collection for the 2025 cycle is open now and will run through March 31, 2026. Both individuals and organizations can participate, and if you participated previously, we’ve made it easy to copy over last year’s responses so you don’t have to start from scratch.
In March 2025, I shared some highlights from the individual survey in this space. This time, I’d like to focus on insights from the organizational survey — a smaller dataset, but one that provides useful benchmarks on policies and practices across publishing organizations. This is just a snapshot of the rich data available. We have many more data points covering compensation by role, and specifics about other key benefits and policies.
Who Participated
We collected data from 17 organizations — admittedly a small sample size, but one that gives us a valuable baseline for understanding organizational practices. Our respondents represented a solid cross-section of scholarly publishing, with society/association/non-profit publishers making up 53% of participants, commercial publishers 24%, university presses 12%, and consulting firms and other organizations rounding out the mix.
Geographically, we saw heavy representation from North America (82%), with the remainder coming from Europe and Central Asia. Within the US, the Mideast dominated responses at 69%, followed by the Southeast at 15%. The median operating revenue across participating organizations was just over $30.5 million, with a median of 120 employees, 70% of whom were directly involved in scholarly publishing activities.
Salary Growth and Pay Equity
One of the most encouraging findings was around salary increases. The median salary increase for 2024 was 4% — a figure that suggests organizations in our industry are responding to inflation pressures and the competitive job market and staying aligned with national averages. This is particularly noteworthy given the economic uncertainty our industry has faced in recent years.
According to the results of the 14th annual Salary.com National Salary Budget Survey, US and Canadian employers provided 4% median salary increases in 2024.
What’s equally interesting is how organizations are thinking about pay equity. A remarkable 93% of respondents conduct periodic pay analyses to review equity, and 67% make proactive adjustments. This suggests that scholarly publishing organizations are taking pay equity seriously — not just reacting to problems when they arise, but actively working to prevent them.
Performance-based incentives are also common, with 44% of organizations offering company-wide performance bonuses and 25% providing incentives for specific positions. This indicates an appetite for dynamic compensation structures that reward both organizational success and individual contributions.
Flexibility as the New Normal
The pandemic fundamentally altered how we think about work location, and our data shows that transformation has largely stuck. An impressive 47% of organizations allow employees to work 100% remotely, 13% require employees to work remotely, and another 33% offer hybrid arrangements with 2-3 days of remote work per week.
Even more surprising is the geographic flexibility many organizations offer. Nearly half (47%) allow remote workers to reside anywhere in the world, while 33% limit remote work to select states or provinces within the same country as their headquarters. This could mean organizations are prioritizing talent access over geographic proximity.
The consistency of these policies is also noteworthy — 80% of organizations apply their remote work policies consistently across the company, rather than creating different rules for different departments or locations. This suggests most publishers have moved beyond experimental approaches to remote work and have established comprehensive, organization-wide policies.
For a sector that relies heavily on distributed collaboration, these policies confirm what many of us experience firsthand: flexibility is critical and highly valued by employees.
Investing in Our People
Investment in professional development is strong, with the median cost per employee reported at $1,000 per employee for staff and managers, and $1,650 per employee for director-level positions. In comparison, the latest industry report by Training magazine on the US training industry reveals that US companies spent an average of $774 per learner in 2024 training employees.
The most common professional development offerings include professional certifications (71%), external training through industry associations (71%) (like SSP!), and internal training programs (64%). More than half offer internal mentorship programs, tuition assistance, and up-skilling or re-skilling training. This data implies industry leadership recognizes that human capital development is critical to staying competitive and retaining staff.
More than half (57%) of organizations offer paid internships, which is crucial for building the next generation of scholarly publishing professionals. This investment in emerging talent suggests organizations are thinking beyond immediate needs to long-term industry sustainability and creating a pipeline of future hires.
Time Off and Work-Life Balance
The work/life balance landscape in scholarly publishing is slightly above average (for US companies at least). Organizations offer a median of 11 paid holidays, and 92% allow limited paid time off (PTO) carryover to the following year. On average, hourly employees at hire receive 21 days of PTO (sick + vacation) compared to salaried employees who average 23 days starting out, and the median remains at 30 from 5 years and beyond for both groups.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average number of PTO (sick + vacation) days for US private industry in 2024 was 18 days (after the first year of hire) and 27 days (after 20 years of service).
Family leave policies vary, although 77% of organizations reported providing paid maternity, paternity, and adoption leave. An additional 8% provide only paid maternity and adoption leave. Meaning 85% of respondents offer some form of paid family leave.
Taken together, these figures suggest a fairly robust PTO culture compared with other industries.
The Wellness Picture
Employee wellness is a growing priority, with 91% of organizations offering Employee Assistance Programs. Nearly half provide health and wellness classes, lactation/nursing mothers’ rooms, and wellness communications. More traditional wellness benefits like flu shots, health challenges, and gym subsidies are offered by about 36% of organizations.
Every organization that responded offers flexible work schedules, while 31% provide reduced hours or seasonal scheduling options. A small but notable 15% even offer sabbatical opportunities — a benefit that’s gaining interest from both employers and employees according to World at Work.
Financial benefits are also common, with 50% offering commuter benefit plans and 25% each providing parking, relocation, and home-office stipends. These extras can make a real difference in retention and morale, especially in a tight labor market.
A substantial 80% offer employee referral bonuses, recognizing that current employees often know the best potential candidates.
What This Means for Our Industry
These findings paint a picture of an industry that’s adapting thoughtfully to changing workforce expectations. The combination of competitive salary growth, flexible work arrangements, generous time-off policies, and comprehensive wellness programs suggests scholarly publishing organizations understand they’re competing for talent both within and outside the scholarly communications industry.
The high percentage of organizations conducting pay equity analyses is particularly encouraging. As an industry that prides itself on advancing knowledge and supporting diverse voices, it’s fitting that we’re being proactive about ensuring fair compensation practices.
The widespread adoption of remote work flexibility also positions our industry well for the future. By embracing geographic flexibility, publishers can access talent beyond traditional borders.
Building on Year One
While 17 organizational responses provided a solid foundation, we know there’s much more to learn. For our 2025 study (with data collection open through March 31, 2026), we’re hoping to expand participation significantly. Every organization in our industry — whether you have two employees or 2,000 — has something valuable to contribute.
The beauty of benchmarking data is that it gets more valuable as more organizations participate. With each additional response, we can provide more granular insights, better represent the diversity of our industry, and offer more precise guidance for compensation decisions.
Whether you participated in our inaugural survey or are considering joining for the first time, remember that these studies provide concrete, data-driven insights that help organizations make informed decisions about attracting, retaining, and engaging top talent. In an industry built on evidence and research, our compensation decisions should be based on solid data, too.
The scholarly publishing industry has always been about advancing knowledge. Now, we’re finally advancing our knowledge about ourselves — and that’s a development worth celebrating.
Call for Participation
Organizations and individuals are encouraged to participate in the 2025 Compensation and Benefits Benchmarking Study by December 31, 2025. For more information about participation or to access study results, visit https://www.sspnet.org/resources/insights/. Organizations first need to designate an authorized user. Typically, the best person to complete the survey is someone with sufficient access to benefits and compensation data across the organization.
For a deeper dive, including the ability to filter the dataset and access compensation data from the individual study, premium and enterprise subscriptions are available for purchase. If you participated in last year’s survey or purchased a subscription, you can still access the reports for 2024 (subscriptions are valid for 12 months).
Let’s work together to create a transparent and equitable scholarly communications landscape for everyone!
