Show me the money...

What are typical project manager salaries? Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

Just curious what is being said here...

Use Salary.com with the search criteria of Project Manager. Here are my thoughts... there are three areas a PM needs to cover to be hired. Leadership, PM technical skills, and expertise in the industry you are looking in. Leadership would cover team dynamics, development, change management, presentation skills, and general/business background. By PM skills, I mean scheduling, estimating, HR, and the other PMBOK areas - not just book knowledge, practical experience in the 9+ areas. Finally industry expertise - the phamacy industry is an good example to make my point, it is rare you would see a job posting for a Phara PM. They are grown within the company, well paid and usually retained. They likely will have a Phd in science and years of hard hard knocks as a researcher. They may have wanted out of the direct research or were not succesful at finding the compounds needed. Construction, hardware, SW, aerospace, and most other industries have realized that PM are not interchangable. You must have deep imdustry experience before a company will gamble on you to manage projects that use very precious resources in particular capital & scarce people.