UK CSR executives are commanding six figure salaries and wages are expected to continue to rise over the next few years as the CSR department becomes more deeply embedded within the corporate mainstream.

That is the conclusion of a major new survey from CSR recruitment firm Acre Resources, green consultancy Acona and newsletter Ethical Performance, which found that CSR managers are paid an average of between £40,000 and £60,000 a year, while around four per cent are earning upwards of £120,000 a year.

The CSR Salary Survey drew responses from 281 CSR executives and found that while salaries continue to lag behind those offered to other senior executives they are catching up fast. Four out of 10 respondents reported salaries of between £40,000 and £60,000 a year, while 20 per cent took home £60,000 to £80,000 and four per cent earned £120,000 or more.

A spokeswoman for Acre Resources said that salaries on offer for CSR executives had climbed steadily over the past four years and that wages were expected to continue to climb as firms place more and more onus on their CSR activities.

The report also found that CSR professionals are enjoying an increasingly influential role in the organisation with just under half of CSR directors reporting directly to the chief executive or other board level manager and a quarter commanding an annual budget of over £1m.

Paul Burke, senior partner at Acona, said the findings highlighted the extent to which CSR had entered the corporate mainstream. "The fact that these people sit in their own departments and often control substantial budgets with sizeable teams suggests the corporate responsibility function in larger companies is here to stay," he said. "It would be wrong to claim that CSR is yet a major element of corporate activity but it is certainly now mainstream and has become an established part of the landscape."

The profession is evenly split between men and women, but in something of a blow to many CSR departments' equal opportunities efforts the survey revealed a distinct gap in pay levels between the sexes. It found that in line with other business functions there are a significantly larger proportion of men in the top pay band, while women are disproportionately represented in the bottom two pay bands.