Those who work in the Southeast fared the best, followed by those in the West Central, West Central North and Northeast states. These figures, taken from the recently released NAIOP 2000-2001 Compensation Report, reflect the practices of 161 US companies and 5,875 employees. The survey was conducted by Industry Insights.

The report, covering 43 executive positions in all areas of commercial real estate development, presents compensation by position along with information on long-term incentives; equity participation and stock options; employee benefits and perquisites; and breakouts by REIT vs. private developers, company size and region. The report includes companies ranging in asset size from under $10 million to $500 million and above. Average, median and 25th and 75th percentiles are provided for base salary and total cash compensation.

"The Report is an invaluable resource for development companies to use during annual reviews, with new hires and in budget discussions. It will also be helpful as a benchmark for companies to compare their own salaries, benefits and perks against industry averages and medians," says Sheila K. Vertino, NAIOP vice president for information and technology, who managed the survey and report.