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IT SALARY TRENDS

Certification Magazine’s 2009 Salary Survey presented a wealth of helpful data received from more than 40,000 IT professionals in over 150 countries. Certification’s Agatha Gilmore wrote that “despite the continued economic ambiguity, the results of our survey pointed to a few stable trends within the IT industry that could provide professionals with some direction for the coming year.”

A few key stats presented from the survey:

• "In 2009, the average U.S. total salary, including benefits and incentives, was a generous $96,677. That is a 9 percent gain over last year’s average of $88,640. However, this growth represents a slowdown from that of the previous year, when average total salaries jumped a dramatic 15 percent."
• "About a quarter of you said you’ve either had your pay cut in the last year or expect to have your pay cut in the coming year. Fewer people reported getting incentives or bonuses this year, too — dropping from 41 percent of respondents in 2008 to 34 percent in 2009."
• "Many respondents reported receiving a raise after earning their most recent certification, with 30 percent of you saying that raise was between 10 and 20 percent. Then again, most of you (52 percent) said that raise was 5 percent or less, whereas last year the most common raise amount was 5 to 10 percent."

Computerworld’s 2010 Salary Survey assessed IT salaries by industry and found the following to be the top 5 industries for IT salary in 2010:

• Defense/aerospace (overall compensation up 2.9%)
• Biotechnology (up 2.2%)
• Government (up 1.8%)
• Education (up 1.4%)
• Health/medical services (up 1.4%)

Redmond Magazine also conducts an annual salary survey with a specific focus on the compensation of those working with Microsoft technologies. Redmond reports that the global recession has not had the impact they expected on base compensation in IT:

• Overall base salary: $83,113
• 36.5% of survey participants saw no change in salary from last year
• 49.4% of survey participants saw a salary increase in 2009