Communications of the ACM
IT Pay Creeps p After Two-Year Downward Spiral
Credit: iStockPhoto.com
After two years of pay cuts and downward pressure on wages, IT salaries are once again on the rise, driven by demand for contract and permanent IT staff. As IT staffing industry executives point out, demand for permanent IT professionals started to pick up in mid-2010 and has remained steady every since. There has also been an increase in the number of contractors who are transitioning into permanent, full-time positions. Meanwhile, some IT workers are leaving full-time, permanent positions to become contractors in order to capitalize on the number of higher-paying contract opportunities in the marketplace. Together, these workplace trends are leading to pay premiums for IT workers.
IT departments are hiring more aggressively for the first time since the start of the recession for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, corporations feel comfortable spending some of the cash reserves they built up during two years of aggressive cost cutting. From their perspective, IT investments, especially those involving automation, are a way to hedge against economic uncertainty and lower their labor costs. IT departments are also hiring permanent and contract staff to work on infrastructure upgrades that they had avoided during the recession. Regulatory compliance, especially within sectors such as financial services and healthcare, is an additional factor influencing IT hiring.
The increased demand for contact and permanent IT staff, especially in the area of web application development, is starting to have a positive effect on wages. Rates for full-time positions are, in some cases, considerably higher than what the market paid over the last two to three years. As IT hiring heats up, companies are going to have to pay to recruit top talent. IT workers with Java, SAP, .NET, C#, project management and business analysis skills can boost their pay 10-20% by moving on to new opportunities. That being said, even the most optimistic recruiters note that increases in IT salaries and wages will remain moderate over the short- to medium-term, as the economy continues to pick up momentum.
From CIO
View Full Article
No entries found