Communications of the ACM
It Salaries Take Tiny Leaps
Salaries for information technology (IT) professionals have essentially stalled, reveals Computerworld's 22nd annual Salary Survey. The survey, based on responses from 6,801 U.S. IT workers, found that total compensation rose an average of 3.5 percent this year, down slightly from the average of 3.7 percent reported in 2007. Meanwhile, bonuses for IT professionals rose an average of only 0.2 percent in 2008, compared to 2007's 3.4 percent increase.
"I think IT professionals have reluctantly accepted that the days of special treatment for IT — which did endure for nearly a decade — are gone," says Mercer IT workforce specialist David Van De Voort.
The best advice for IT workers stuck at a certain pay level is to try to tie their own performance to the company's bottom line, or draw a connection between how their work has helped the company to improve its productivity or operational efficiency, says consultant David Weldon.
IT salaries should increase once the economy improves, but individual increases will largely depend on the technical skills that companies require, says Robert Half Technology's Katherine Spencer Lee. Lee believes there will be a continuing demand for IT professionals with business intelligence skills who can help design and develop dashboards that senior managers use to more closely track sales and expenses.
Despite the small salary increases, 60 percent of survey responders were either satisfied or very satisfied with their total compensation packages, although 52 percent of respondents also said they are looking for new jobs.
From Computerworld
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