Promotions are a clear marker of career progress used by everyone. Just getting a raise, no matter how substantial, never sounds quite as impressive as when we can say we’ve got a new title with more responsibilities. But more employees responded to the question “How many times in the last five years have you been promoted” with “I haven’t been promoted yet” than any other answer. There are some notable exceptions, which we’ll explore below. The data comes from an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees anonymously answered the query.
25% percent say they’ve been promoted once over the last five years. But 29% say they’ve haven’t been promoted at all during that time period. Those who can claim 3 (14%) and 4 or more (8%) promotions are a rare breed.
Results break down similarly along gender lines. Women say they’ve haven’t been promoted 2% more frequently than men, and men say they have gotten 4 or more promotions 1% more often than women.
Hispanic/Latinos are one of the few groups to answer most frequently that they had been promoted, in this case twice. African-Americans and the Asian/Pacific Islanders answered in line with the overall average response.
When viewed by department, most groups voted for “no promotions” most frequently. Certain departments split from this pattern: employees from Product, Marketing, and Executive all reported getting promoted twice over the last five years most often. Workers in admin chose “no promotions” at an alarming 40% rate, much higher than average.
PRODUCT
MARKETING
EXECUTIVE
ADMIN
Latest reading as of February 26.
