by Jon C. Malinowski, Ph.D.
Naturally, camp directors want to be paid a competitive salary and compensate
their counselors and staff fairly. It is not surprising, therefore, that
salary and compensation information repeatedly comes to the forefront
when directors are questioned about statistical information they want
from the American Camp Association (ACA). In September 2006, ACA sent
surveys to over 1700 of its accredited camps. Administered by a professional
research firm, the questionnaires asked members to relate salary and
benefits for key positions at their camps. When the responses were totaled,
52 percent of those surveyed, a total of 938 camps, had participated.
The results, outlined below and available in detail from ACA, www.ACAcamps.org/research,
show that while there are great differences among camps and among areas
of the country in some respects, there is also relative parity on issues
such as counselor salaries.
Residential Camps
Approximately 63 percent of the survey respondents indicated that their
primary mission was residential camping. These camps included both
independent for-profit and nonprofit camps, religious camps, and agency
camps. On average, residential camps in the survey had Caucasian directors
(95 percent) with a median age of forty-three years. Overall, 58 percent
of participating residential directors were men, but at agency camps,
59 percent were women. In terms of education, the majority of residential
camp directors have a bachelor’s degree, but 39 percent have
graduate degrees. How long do directors stay in their jobs? According
to this survey, the average is seven years, but 36 percent of directors
have over a decade of service and 16 percent have over two decades
of service.
How much do residential camp directors earn? Nationwide, the median
salary is $43,000. This ranges from a low of $40,000 at agency camps
to $60,000 at independent for-profit camps. Regionally, New England
and Mid-Atlantic residential directors earn the most, at $50,000 per
year, while those in the Western states earn the least, at $40,000.
The highest reported salaries are over $150,000, and nearly all of
these were in either the New England or Mid-Atlantic regions. Salaries
over $100,000 are also more common in these regions. Over half of all
responding directors reported getting raises in the past year, but
increases were slightly more common in New England than in other areas.
Just as with salaries, there is quite a bit of variation in director
benefits. According to the results, 84 percent of residential directors
receive health insurance, 69 percent have retirement plans with employer
contributions, and 50 percent receive life insurance benefits. Only 16
percent report bonuses, profit-sharing, or incentive pay. Overall, benefits
are less common at independent for-profits, which makes sense given the
higher reported salaries and perhaps the fact that some of these directors
are also owners.
As expected, salaries for year-round positions other than director are
generally lower. Assistant directors averaged $35,000 per year, maintenance
directors $32,000, and food service directors $29,000. All salaries had
gone up about 3 percent from the previous year. Assistant directors generally
received benefits similar to those of the director, but other positions,
on average, had smaller benefit packages.
Summer staff salaries were naturally quite a bit lower. Median gross
weekly wages for counselors were $200, but eighty-six camps reported
salaries of over $1,000 per week. Average salaries are about $100 higher
than the median salaries. Nurses were paid a median wage of $500 per
week, and head cooks received a median $400. These salaries were largely
unchanged from the previous year. In fact, 43 percent of respondents
reported no change from the previous year for seasonal positions.
Day Camps
Day camp salaries and compensation show some notable differences from
residential camps. Survey respondents reporting their primary mission
as day camps numbered 321, or about 29 percent of all survey respondents.
Day camps were far less common than residential camps among ACA-Accredited® camps
surveyed in all regions of the country except the Mid-Atlantic, where
there is more parity between the two types. This is probably because
of the large number of day camps in the New York area. The Southern states
seem to have the fewest ACA-accredited day camps, with only 17 percent
of survey respondents reporting their primary mission as day camps in
that region. The 321 survey respondents were fairly equally divided among
independent for-profit, independent nonprofit, and agency camps.
The median age for a camp director among the day camp respondents was
thirty-six years. This is seven years younger than the median age reported
for resident camp directors. Furthermore, while residential camps tended
to have male directors, the majority of day camps reported having female
directors (56 percent). In terms of education, 31 percent of day camp
directors had graduate degrees. Day camp directors are more likely to
be non-Caucasian than resident camp directors. For example, 5 percent
of day camps reported an African-American or Hispanic director, compared
to just 1 percent for each category among residential camp respondents.
Day camp directors, according to the survey, have less time in their
jobs than residential directors. The average tenure for a day camp director
is five years. Just 27 percent of day camp directors have held their
current position for more than ten years, compared to 36 percent of residential
directors. The exception to this pattern is among day camp directors
at independent for-profits. In this category, directors reported a median
tenure of twelve years in their current positions.
Day camp director salaries are lower than for residential camp directors.
The median salary reported was $38,200 as of mid-2006. Approximately
18 percent of directors reported salaries under $30,000, and 6 percent
reported salaries over $100,000. The higher end is about the same as
for residential camp directors, but a higher percentage of directors
at day camps are making under $30,000 than at resident camps, where only
12 percent were in that category. The geographical exception for day
camp director salaries is the Mid-Atlantic region, where directors make
more than their counterparts at resident camps. Salaries were reported
to have increased about 3 percent from the previous year and were predicted
to increase at about the same rate for next year.
A camp’s sponsorship category makes a significant difference on
day camp director salaries. At agency day camps, the median salary for
a director was $34,000, while at independent for-profits the median was
$64,100. Religious and independent
nonprofits were $39,600 and $48,000, respectively. Geographically, day
camp directors in the Mid-Atlantic states make nearly $13,000 more per
year than directors in other regions. The median salary in the Mid-Atlantic
states was reported as $51,000, compared to $38,000 in New England, $38,200
in the Western states, $37,400 in the South, and $34,400 in Mid-America.
Of course, cost-of-living differences make these differences difficult
to compare.
In addition to lower salaries, day camp directors are less likely to
receive benefits compared to directors at residential camps. Only 74
percent of day camp directors reported health insurance, compared to
84 percent of residential directors. Retirement plan contributions and
professional development were also less common, according to respondents.
Insurance benefits were lowest among day camp directors at independent
for-profit camps, but nearly half of these camps reported some sort of
bonus or revenue sharing for their directors. These findings are difficult
to interpret because some of these camps are undoubtedly owned by the
director.
Year-round positions other than director are less common at day camps
than at resident camps. But for those camps reporting full-time salaried
personnel, the median salaries were as follows: $37,500 for an assistant
or associate director, $35,000 for a maintenance director, and $36,000
for a program manager or equivalent. In general, benefits for these positions
were comparable with those received by the director. The one exception
noted was a greater likelihood for maintenance directors to receive housing
or a housing stipend.
Median salaries for seasonal employees at day camps are higher than
at resident camps. Counselors at day camps received a median wage of
$290 per week compared to $200 per week at resident camps. Nurses received,
on average, $600 per week, and assistant camp directors were paid $520
per week. In cases where the director was hired for just the summer,
the median wage was $700 per week, but strong regional differences were
noted. In New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, the median weekly
wage for a seasonal camp director was $850, but in the Southern region,
the median was just $400.
Salaries by Region
For all types of camps, both day and resident camps, counselor salaries
are fairly consistent in all regions, ranging from $200 in the Southern
and Mid-America regions to $250 in New England. Salaries for nurses showed
more regional variation, ranging from just $390 in the Mid-America states
to $600 in New England and Mid-Atlantic. There were also large differences
in weekly salaries for cooks, who received median wages of $600 in New
England and $350 in the Southern and Mid-America states. Average salaries
are higher than median salaries in all regions.
Conclusion
This large and detailed member survey shows that there are significant
regional variations in salaries. This is probably explainable by cost-of-living
differences, but warrants some further attention. Furthermore, differences
exist between positions at day camps and resident camps. These seem more
pronounced at camps that are nonprofit or run by agencies. Finally, the
responses seem to suggest that while salaries for yearly positions have
increased at about 3 percent per year, seasonal wages are more stagnant.
This finding needs to be researched more closely. For example, will counselor
salaries continue to stagnate as Federal minimum wages increase? Will
inflation and rising gas prices make camp jobs less enticing for American
teens and young adults if salaries fail to increase? Furthermore, what
effect, if any, has the rise of the international counselor placement
industry had on depressing wage increases for American staff?
Originally published in the 2007 September/October
issue of Camping Magazine. |
