What a difference a decade makes! JCK has been doing its annual salary survey of the retail jewelry industry for more than 15 years, but the last 10 have seen some surprising—even dramatic—changes in salaries and benefits. Here's what we found: The median base pay and median total pay (which includes commissions, bonuses, and fringe benefits) for most job titles have increased between 30% and 100% since 1990. That compares favorably with the national growth rate (about 32%) in median earnings in the same period. The median total compensation paid to managers, for example, increased 50% since 1990. The median increase was 61% for assistant managers, 48% for gemologist/appraisers, 82% for watchmakers, almost 43% for bench workers, 57% for bookkeepers, and almost 67% for office workers. In some cases, much of those gains occurred within the past five years, a reflection of