The 13th Annual Salary Survey: IT Salaries on the Rise
The 2008 Redmond Salary Survey shows IT job and salary strength.
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A looming recession should affect salaries. So should reports of IT budgets being slashed for the rest of 2008. And so should global economies going crazy with every dollar fluctuation, mortgage crisis or the closing down of another subprime-laden bank or brokerage.
But get this: Those events haven't made any such visible impact on IT compensation -- at least, so far -- as this year's joint Redmond/MCPmag.com 2008 Salary Survey indicates. For a fourth year in a row salaries have risen, as have raises, bonuses and job stability, sidestepping any rising recessionary tide.
Robert Laposta, a systems admin for a government contractor based in Sierra Vista, Ariz., believes salaries have continued to go up because "demand for IT is not subsiding." He points to his own experiences facing a federal mandate to keep government workers on the cutting edge of technology: "Our programming staff will be increasing as the government looks for more programming support" to keep those applications humming, he says.
Laposta's observations are validated by data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), whose Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008 states that companies across the United States will need to fill some 854,000 jobs between 2006 and 2016.
With the combination of additional bodies needed to occupy IT positions and a drop in enrollment in computer science courses -- a Computing Research Association study pegs the drop at 20 percent in 2008 -- the trick will be how to keep valuable and skilled employees. Thus, companies are providing incentives to employees by way of bumped-up compensation.
In our survey, besides comparing our results against BLS data, we also look at year-over-year data based on other factors, such as technology expertise, education, years in IT and certification. Let's start from the top.
Survey respondents this year report that their base salaries -- sans raises and bonuses, at $78,087 (see Chart 1) -- have risen a bit more than 8 percent from 2007. The rise beats last year's 2006-to-2007 increase of 2.7 percent, and keeps these wages ahead of inflation as indicated by the latest BLS numbers for the Consumer Price Index (at press time, that number stood at 5.5 percent).
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| Chart 1. Overview of 2008 IT compensation |
Whether the upward trend will continue is anyone's guess. For Kate Forster, an application developer, salary increases are on autopilot because she works for a local government in Joliet, Ill. "By contract [we're] guaranteed a 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment" at the beginning of 2009, she explains.
There are those who aren't as lucky, like Baltimore-based IS manager Joe Grosskopf, who expects the recession to have some impact in the IT world. "The recession is preventing a lot of companies from increasing salaries," he says, adding that "with all the layoffs, many workers aren't complaining. If they have a job, they feel lucky."
Chart 2 may explain why salaries jumped the way they did. More than 21 percent of respondents specify that their salary exceeded six figures, a six-point increase from last year's figure. Additionally, managers and those with project management expertise make up more than a quarter of respondents, a testament to the changing demographic of the Redmond reader; the majority readership used to be IT administrators.
| 2008 Salary of All Respondents by Range |
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| Chart 2. Respondents were asked to specify a range for their base salary (bonuses and other compensation not included). Most salaries for 2008 fall between the $55,000 and $89,999 range. Interestingly, the number of respondents claiming six-figure incomes has risen from last year. Mean salary is $71,988. |
Looking again at Chart 1, there are a few more numbers worth highlighting. Age and years in IT have increased by more than a year each from last year's figures, indicating that the respondent list has changed very little, yet on the whole they've all fattened their salaries. At a mean of 42.7 years, respondents continue to age. That's disconcerting if it provides some evidence that, indeed, fewer college graduates will fill IT roles as older workers retire.
Still, those older workers who continue to work also continue to see their salaries rise. And if they're the same respondents year over year, that four-year run upward bodes well for a rise next year with salaries. Interestingly enough, the number of years that respondents on average say they've toiled in IT is 13.7 years. That's a 12-month increase, matching respondent ages.
Just like last year, the ratio of men to women in the IT industry hasn't changed much; it remains at 6-to-1 in the field.
A Little Extra
Respondents who say that they got raises on average took home an extra $572 from last year, which is an increase of 12.5 percent. Nearly 9 percent claim more than $10,000, with 2.8 percent getting more than $20,000. On the opposite side of the bank statement, 20 percent saw no gain at all. (For advice on seeking a raise, see "Getting a Raise: Secrets from a Manager.")
| Read What Others Say About Their IT Jobs | |
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Safe Computing: Kate Forster, Joliet, Ill. |
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One Success at a Time: Chris Blickley |
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Never Giving Up: Margaret Thomas, South Bend, Ind. |
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Big Sky IT: Elise Crull, Missoula, Mont. |
The Bonus Question
Bonuses last year made a surprising jump from 2006 to 2007 of nearly 86 percent. From 2007 to 2008, there was not so much of a jump. Overall, bonuses went up a mere $398, or 6.23 percent. But consider any bonus a plus. "Since I work for a nonprofit," says Mark Jones, an IT security and compliance officer in Bethel, Alaska, "I'd expect a raise only if our funding and revenue grow, which may be problematic in a slow economy." Almost 40 percent of respondents predict ominous news for next year's bonus season.
But optimism remains among some readers, with nearly 44 percent expecting some compensation between $1,000 and up to $10,000. About 4.8 percent figure that their bonus compensation will top out at more than $24,000.
Michael Domingo is executive editor of MCPmag.com and hosts the Redmond Radio podcasts. You can contact the editors about "The 13th Annual Salary Survey: IT Salaries on the Rise" at mdomingo@1105media.com.