When salaries for entry-level media people ballooned to new highs during the dot.com boom in 2000, there was a sense that something would bring it all to a halt.

That something was the dot.com bust, which tossed many media planners and buyers out of work and meant frozen salaries for many of those who kept their jobs.

But six years later, with the ad economy healthy again, starting salaries for media people are now not only back to where they were at the top of the boom but in some cases well above.

Unfortunately, those increases have not tended to work their way up the ladder to more experienced media people. 

That’s according to a Media Life salary poll posted last month, which asked readers to estimate salaries for a range of media planning and buying positions across six different regions of the country.

Readers chose good and poor starting salaries for 11 different media buying and planning positions. Media Life looked at the top responses in each category, then compared those with salary data gathered from media directors during March 2000, as the dot.com boom neared its peak.

The findings: Entry-level media people are making more than ever.

For example, in 2000, a typical entry-level media planner made $29,750 on the East Coast and $26,000 on the West Coast. According to the 2006 survey, entry-level planners now start at $30,000 to $34,000 on each coast, and a starting salary in the $25,000 to $29,000 range is considered poor in those regions.

For media buyers, entry-level salaries ranged from $24,500 for the West Coast to $28,500 on the East in 2000. Today, readers say, entry-level buyers make anywhere from $30,000 to $34,000 to start, and a starting salary in the $25,000 to $29,000 range is considered poor.

But it’s not just on the coasts where entry-level people are being paid more, though as a rule those salaries tend to be higher.

In the Midwest, where young buyers and planners averaged $24,167 to start six years ago, respondents peg a decent starting salary at up to $34,000 for both jobs.

Of course, the question then becomes, when might this salary boomlet begin funneling up for mid-level media people?

There's really no clear answer, unfortunately, and making it all the harder is that salaries in all media positions can vary widely within regions of the country and even within markets and from agency to agency within those markets.

So some media people may be getting hefty raises and promotions at one agency while down the street there still may be a hiring freeze hanging over from the bottom of the ad recession.

But overall it seems that salaries for experienced media planners and buyers are about even or below where they were six years ago. They are certainly not seeing the full benefits of the ad recovery.

In 2000, a media planner on the East Coast averaged $50,000; readers say a good salary for a planner these days is $45,000 to $49,000 in the East. Meanwhile, buyers, who averaged $47,500 three years ago remain in that same $45,000 to $49,000 range today.

On the West Coast, where planners averaged $43,333 six years ago, they’re averaging $34,000 to $39,000 today. That seems quite low, and indeed there were a range of responses to that question both higher and lower, but more respondents chose that average than any other. Buyers are doing somewhat better, at $45,000 to $49,000 compared with $42,667 in 2000.

Meanwhile, salaries seem to be down in the Midwest, where planners and buyers averaged $45,000 in 2000. This year, readers said a good salary for either job was $40,000 to $44,000. 

As to where the best money is overall, the East Coast led in all but two categories. The Southeast and Southwest offer the lowest salaries for buyers and planners of all experience levels, according to readers, while the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region slightly lag the West Coast, which is just behind the East.