Average S Corporation Salaries

S corporation owners and managers often ask about average S corporation salaries for shareholder-employees.

To help your S corporation with this process, I've created a table of "Average S corporation salaries" (see below) using the most recent statistics available from the Internal Revenue Service's website.

The most recent statistics come from 2013 1120S Subchapter S tax return data. But you should still be able to get insight into what works from this real, industry-by-industry salary data.

What you probably want to do, however, is inflate these 2013 amounts for inflation that's occurred since then. If you're looking to set salaries for an S corporation shareholder-employee for 2018, for example, you possibly want to inflate the values in the table below by two or three percent inflation for four years. (A two percent annual adjustment for four years works out to about an 8.2% bump. A three percent annual adjustment for four years works out to about a 12.5% bump.)

One final comment: If you do use the data from the table below, be sure to skim the cautions that appear beneath the table.

Industry Avg. Revenues Avg. Salary Avg. Profit
All industries          1,584,133         35,900            53,846
Agriculture production         1,177,482           7,326            23,163
Forestry & logging         1,639,704         14,188            26,825
Agriculture support activities, fishing,
hunting & trapping
        1,317,256         10,581            40,846
Mining         2,238,426         22,797          145,044
Utilities         2,264,233         22,837            42,927
Construction of buildings         1,972,188         27,904            39,053
Heavy & civil engineering
construction & land subdivision
        3,777,082         32,915            73,790
Specialty trade contractors         1,242,063         33,635            45,846
Food manufacturing       14,114,124         55,169          197,344
Beverage & tobacco product
manufacturing
        5,422,443         31,446          155,438
Textile mills & textile product
mills
        3,902,216         79,249          136,211
Apparel manufacturing         4,895,647         81,034          161,090
Leather & allied product
manufacturing
        5,186,625         70,470          133,823
Wood product manufacturing         5,305,003         39,966          164,402
Paper manufacturing       11,463,969         81,592          261,985
Printing & related support
activities
        2,105,232         39,968            66,884
Petroleum & coal products
manufacturing
      12,928,872         62,898          205,304
Chemical manufacturing       10,206,698       120,682          352,353
Plastics & rubber products
manufacturing
        7,936,173         67,879          246,833
Nonmetallic mineral product
manufacturing
        4,281,548         55,773          124,343
Primary metal manufacturing       12,561,402       103,952          303,087
Fabricated metal product manufacturing         3,920,469         62,143          172,819
Machinery manufacturing         4,944,810         61,387          210,724
Computer & electronic product
manufacturing
        5,850,543         99,643          218,004
Electrical
equipment, appliance & component manufacturing
        6,944,198         79,681          275,245
Transportation equipment manufacturing         7,341,094         78,463          259,263
Furniture & related product
manufacturing
        2,608,803         32,433            87,327
Miscellaneous manufacturing         2,631,406         44,664          121,812
Wholesale durable goods         3,970,853         48,016            97,071
Wholesale nondurable       10,110,369         53,926          123,700
Wholesale electronic markets, agents
& brokers
           249,114         42,018            48,140
Motor vehicle dealers & parts
dealers
        9,858,497         48,011          105,291
Furniture & home furnishings stores         1,949,938         35,365            55,592
Electronics & appliance stores         1,864,705         23,183            24,188
Building material & garden equipment
& supplies dealers
        3,432,962         38,156            88,225
Food, beverage & liquor stores         2,341,639         16,273            30,107
Health & personal care stores         1,891,834         33,602            49,750
Gasoline stations         6,428,653         16,445            33,559
Clothing & clothing accessories
stores
           897,048         21,500            27,525
Sporting
goods, hobby, book & music stores
        1,720,615         18,150            54,117
General merchandise stores         1,553,616         16,240            47,200
Miscellaneous store retailers         1,008,489         22,720            18,831
Nonstore retailers         1,292,066         39,374            47,300
Air, rail & water transportation         2,392,988         26,953            70,038
Truck transportation         1,520,815         49,026            35,343
Transit & ground passenger
transportation
           615,759         14,512            22,656
Pipeline transportation         4,147,016         13,447            70,225
Other transportation & support
activities
        1,727,547         36,194            55,979
Warehousing & storage         4,076,262         29,817            36,044
Publishing industries (except Internet)         1,459,214         49,124            72,956
Motion picture & sound recording
industries
           524,691         57,227            34,375
Broadcasting (except Internet)         1,043,564         25,345            39,265
Telecommunications (including paging,
cellular, satellite, cable & Internet service providers)
        2,185,148         37,777            77,091
Data processing, hosting & related
services
           652,964         30,416            69,024
Other information services         1,146,278         43,970            56,603
Depository credit intermediation         4,721,248         22,477          126,397
Non-depository credit intermediation            910,426         30,581            84,518
Securities,
commodity contracts & other financial investments & related
activities
        1,063,429         74,351          102,790
Insurance carriers & related
activities
           501,912         48,701            62,072
Funds, trusts & other financial
vehicles
           389,405           4,271            17,560
Real estate            175,719           8,772            11,112
Rental & leasing services         1,100,534         20,571            52,879
Lessors of nonfinancial intangible
assets (except copyrighted works)
           721,556         14,342          119,769
Professional, scientific & technical
services
           716,139         48,230            52,314
Management of companies  (holding companies)            310,121         11,193            74,826
Administrative & support services         1,116,288         27,874            46,289
Waste management & remediation
services
        2,343,514         29,823            46,178
Educational services            634,394         27,307            32,299
Offices of health practitioners &
outpatient care centers
           784,301       104,897            80,853
Miscellaneous health care & social
assistance 
           828,922         30,447            37,389
Hospitals, nursing & residential
care facilities
        2,994,524         33,951            61,076
Other arts, entertainment &
recreation
           621,610         90,706            39,114
Amusement, gambling & recreation
industries
           816,902         16,193            15,647
Accommodation            787,013           5,393            15,959
Food services & drinking places         1,001,557         16,800            25,831
Repair & maintenance            621,063         23,542            23,151
Personal & laundry services            373,929         16,412            15,412
Religious, grantmaking, civic,
professional & similar organizations
           206,530         14,708            40,628

Some Cautions about the IRS Average S corporation Salary Data

Let me issue some cautions and caveats about the data from the IRS.

First, and really important, the averages all represent means and not medians.

For example, the first line in the table reports that the average revenues of an S corporation in 2013 was $1,584,133. That's probably way above the median, midpoint S corporation revenue. Further, the table calculates the average salary shown in the table by dividing the officer compensation by the number of shareholders. Again, that value is probably way above the median.

Note: Remember a median is the value that separates the top half from the bottom half. Using a median value as your S corporation salary would be a good approach. A median would mean half of your industry peers make more and half make less. Unfortunately, that data is not available.

Second, this approach includes officers who aren't shareholders and shareholders who don't work or don't work full time--so that the numbers are pretty approximate. You do therefore want to be careful. However, because most S corporations have one or possibly two shareholders, you should still find the values helpful.

Third, if you combine the data above (especially after adjusting for inflation) with occupational salary data supplied by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, you should find yourself converging on some reasonable compensation value.

To give you an example of this, say the table above suggests that shareholder-employees in your industry, which happens to be construction, earn on average $30,000 a year in wages. (This comes from the seven row of the table and I inflated that $27,904 value by 8.2% to tweak the number for inflation.) If the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that on average someone doing the job the you do earns $40,000, you should be pretty reasonable if your salary falls between $30,000 and $40,000.

If you set your salary to $40,000, so you exceed the IRS average S corporation salaries values and match the Bureau of Labor statistics, your salary should logically be reasonable. Or close to reasonable.

Finally a tip: For more help setting a reasonable compensation amount, please consider our monograph (ebook), "Setting Salaries for S Corporation."

 

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