Report: Tech Salaries Climbed 5% in 2012

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According to online job board Dice.com, salaries for IT workers rose 5 percent last year. Tech unemployment remains low, and some specialties saw even higher salary gains.

PCMag’s Angela Moscaritolo reported, “Technology salaries in the U.S. saw the largest increase in more than a decade during 2012, according to a new survey from Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals. The survey of 15,049 employed technology professionals, conducted this past fall, found that average U.S. tech salaries jumped 5 percent to $85,619 in 2012, up from $81,327 in 2011. Besides the salary bump, companies are increasingly giving tech workers more interesting assignments, and perks like the ability to telecommute. Moreover, 64 percent of respondents were confident they could find a favorable new position in 2013.”

The Sacramento Bee’s Claudia Buck noted, “The highest average salaries are, no surprise, in Silicon Valley, where a six-figure paycheck – $101,278 – is now the norm. But the Dice survey said seven markets across the country saw double-digit average tech-salary increases in 2012, including San Diego, where the average annual salary is $97,300.”

PCWorld’s Katherine Noyes observed, “Rather than a 5 percent increase in average salaries over the past year, those among professionals who regularly use Linux leaped a full 9 percent to $90,853. Linux-using professionals also saw a 2 percent increase in the number who received bonuses last year. In addition, their bonuses—which amounted to $9,224, on average—were considerably bigger than the average $8,636 received by IT professionals in general.”

ReadWrite’s Matt Asay added, “enterprises are paying a premium to hire job candidates with Big Data-relevant technology skills, as Dice.com’s 2012-2013 annual salary survey reveals. Job candidates with Big Data technology expertise command an average salary of $100,000, while other hot technologies like cloud/virtualization ($90,000) and mobile ($80,000) yield lower salaries. As Alice Hill, managing director of Dice.com, asserts, ‘We’ve heard [Big Data] is a fad, heard it’s hyped and heard it’s fleeting, yet it’s clear that data professionals are in demand and well paid.'”