IT salaries appear to be on the rise, but don’t get too excited. According to the just-released Computer Economics 2010 IT Salary Report, IT organizations are budgeting to give the typical IT worker a 1.8 percent pay boost. The glimmer of good news for IT workers comes at a time of high, double-digit unemployment rates […]
IT salaries appear to be on the rise, but don’t get too excited. According to the just-released Computer Economics 2010 IT Salary Report, IT organizations are budgeting to give the typical IT worker a 1.8 percent pay boost.
The glimmer of good news for IT workers comes at a time of high, double-digit unemployment rates across the economy.
But Computer Economics found that IT organizations plan to increase operational budgets by a median of 1.8 percent in 2010, and that more than a third are planning to increase staff, restoring some of the positions shed over the past two years.
“Over the last year or so it’s been easy to find talent and there’s been downward pressure on salaries,” John Longwell, vice president of research at Computer Economics, told InternetNews.com.
Longwell took the findings as a sign that IT jobs and budgets are on the road to recovery, and said he was surprised to see wages bouncing back so quickly.
By historical standards, the 1.8 median pay rise is a pittance. But with the backdrop of high employment, Computer Economics said the finding indicates IT executives are responding to a need to retain their best workers and boost damaged morale.
“There is always going to be some skill set, like an expert on cloud computing or the hot technology of the day, that’s going to be in demand,” Longwell said. “Project management was an important area of growth before the recession and fell off a bit. As people start renewing their spending on new initiatives and capital spending returns, we may start seeing more demand for these kind of cutting edge technical skills.”
Developers are slated to enjoy the highest salary increases with a 2.1 percent boost, according to the report. This group includes application programmers, data analysts, database administrators, business analysts, architects and others involved in the development of new systems and the maintenance of existing systems.
Not far behind are operations group staffers at 2.0 percent. The data center operations group includes computer operators, production control analysts, technical support representatives and help desk representatives. Computer Electronics also includes technical writers, trainers and librarians in this group.
Closer to the median increase are network and systems support personnel, set for a 1.9 percent pay bump. This group includes network administrators, system administrators, storage administrators, security analysts, telecom analysts, and webmasters, among others.
A breakout of the survey finds that C-level executives and directors will get the smallest raises, 1.3 percent at the median. But part of the reason for the smaller increase is that incentive pay typically makes up a larger portion of the total compensation package for executives and directors. Managers, at 1.7 percent, fall just a hair short of the media raise Computer Economics is forecasting, and the group predicts that as the economy improves, executives and managers will see compensation rise faster than the other groups.
Computer Economics has been publishing IT salary data for more than 20 years, including its annual IT Salary Report that projects total compensation for 70 specific IT job titles in 73 metropolitan areas.
Separately, a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics had some less rosy news on salaries for IT workers in Silicon Valley. The report (available here in PDF format), said that IT wages peaked at $120,000 in 2000 during the dotcom bubble and have never recovered. After the bust, wages sank to $87,300 in 2002, but had recovered to $105,000 by mid-2009.
Viewed over the longer term, the bureau said there has been slow, steady pay growth since the 1990s. The average salary has grown 27 percent since 1998, from $83,100 to $105,500.
David Needle is the West Coast bureau chief at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
David Needle is a veteran technology reporter based in Silicon Valley. He covers mobile, big data, customer experience, and social media, among other topics. He was formerly news editor at Infoworld, editor of Computer Currents and TabTimes, and West Coast bureau chief for both InformationWeek and Internet.com.
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.
