Experience doesn't necessarily mean a higher salary for those working in Shanghai's advertising industry, according to a recent survey.

Advertisement professionals with one or two decades of work experience earn less on average than their counterparts with less than 10 years of experience, according to a salary report released by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau yesterday.

The bureau, together with the Shanghai Advertisement Association, surveyed the association's more than 100 member ad companies over the first half of this year.

Professionals with six to 10 years of experience are the best paid group in the ad industry, with an average annual income of 39,197 yuan (US$4,723) this year. Many people in the industry also earn commissions and bonuses on top of their base salaries.

Younger employees who have spent less than five years on the job followed, with an average annual income of 39,088 yuan. However, people who have been working in the ad industry for 11 to 24 years earn only 25,967 yuan on average, nearly 14,000 yuan less than their younger colleagues, according to the report.

"(The situation) reflects the ad sector's distinctive requirements for professionals, such as high education background, expertise and creativity," said Huang Yizhou of the bureau's salary analysis division.

The report suggested that 82 percent of people in the advertising industry with less than a decade of experience have at least a college degree. However, most older people in the industry transferred from other sectors to take up advertising when the domestic industry began to develop in the late 1980s.

The survey results don't surprise Li Fengzhou, a manager at Shanghai Huren Advertising Co Ltd. "Bosses have the final say when it comes to picking the best idea, but ad companies to a large extent rely on the young generation for creativity," Li said.

(Shanghai Daily July 13, 2005)