Summary Findings

IT Median Salaries January 2011 vs, January 2012

The most striking observations of our latest survey are:

• Overall IT compensation has remained flat for the last 12 months.  The total mean compensation for all IT Professionals has increased modestly by 0.81% to $78,229 from $77,604 at the beginning of 2011.  This puts overall compensation back at the levels they were at in January 2008.
• There is an increased demand for IT executives in mid-sized companies as those firms begin to re-tool as the recession comes to an end.
• More enterprises are now shifting IT and a data center operation in-house which has resulted in an increase demand for data center managers.
• Mandated requirements for records management systems and electronic medical records have increased the demand for custodians (librarians) of mechanized records.
• IT hiring is up since January of 2011 – 33,100 IT jobs have been added in the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• Lay-offs seem to have tapered off, however some companies continue to cut the size of the IT organizations.
• On shore outsourcing has peaked and companies are looking to bring IT operations back into their direct control and reduce operating costs.
• Cost reduction is still the rule of the day; however we have seen an increase in the number of “part-timers” and contractors who are focused on particular critical projects.
• Companies are continuing to reduce the benefits provided to IT professionals. Though benefits such as health care are available, IT professionals are now paying a greater portion of that cost.
• Flexible hours and work schedules are becoming more available as the recovery begins to take hold and is viewed as a low cost high value benefit by both employers and employees.
• CIOs compensation is mixed over the last 12 months – the mean base compensation is higher however bonuses received in 2011 were lower than the prior year.  The mean compensation for CIOs in large enterprises is now $176,659 (a decrease of 2.68%) and $164.342 (an increase of 1.26%) in mid-sized enterprises.
• Hiring of CIOs is up slightly in large enterprises and significantly higher in mid-sized firms.
• In the last 12 months the mean compensation across all IT professionals has increased by 0.81% (from $77,604 to $78,229).
• In mid-sized enterprises, the mean total compensation for all positions has increased by 1.19% from $73,934 to $74,435.   
• In large enterprises, the median compensation has risen slightly from $81,273 to $81,644.

The Janco Associates, Inc. salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year by extensive interviews,  internet-based survey data, and survey forms completed by businesses throughout the United States and Canada. 

The compensation study (over 160 pages in PDF or WORD and EXCEL with the data) can be ordered here.

 

National Employment Report

The national employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics validates the findings of the Janco and eJobDescription.com salary survey that the overall IT employment picture has stabilized and is improving in all areas except for telecommunication and hosting providers -- the primary areas where Outsourcing has had the greatest impact.

Fortune 500 Top IT Executive Compensation

This is the total compensation for  25 senior IT executives at Fortune 500 companies, but it's NOT a ranking of the highest paid CIOs and CTOs. A public company is only obligated to report the compensation of its principal executive officer (usually the CEO), principal financial officer (CFO) and its three most highly compensated officers. If a senior IT leader ranks among a company's three most highly paid executives, that CIO's or CTO's compensation is reported in the organization's annual proxy statement.

This table includes 25 instances where a CIO or CTO is included among the named executive officers. However, a CIO or CTO might have earned a multimillion-dollar pay package, but if more than three executives at the company topped that amount, that IT leader's compensation data is not disclosed. There are undoubtedly higher paid IT chiefs whose compensation is not publicly reported and therefore they are not included in this table.

See also Fed executive compensation limits

Historic Salary Trends IT Jobs

The compensation study (over 160 pages in PDF or WORD and EXCEL with the data) can be ordered here.

If you  do not want to purchase the full salary study, you can get just the data for a particular city for a fraction of the cost of the full study.  Just  click here to see all the cities covered or select your city for the order page.

The positions that have the greatest change in demand are listed below.  The positions that show an increased demand tend to have significantly higher offering salaries.  This in turn, inflates the level of compensation for individuals who remain in those existing positions. 

In those positions that are facing decreasing demand, increases in compensation are normally based on “time-in-grade” or tenure within the enterprise.

The IT job market shrank dramatically after the dot com bubble burst.

Information Technology Sector includes: software publishers, telecommunications, data processing, hosting and related services, internet publishing, broadcasting, web search, and portals.  Manufacturing Sector includes: peripheral equipment, storage devices, broadcast and wireless communication, audio and video equipment, and semiconductors.

IT Salary Survey Purchase Options

You can order the IT Salary Survey for an individual city or for all of North America (Canada and the United States) with or with out data in Excel sheet format and with or with full multi page job descriptions for the positions surveyed.  Or you can order the survey as part of our IT Resource Hiring Kit with full job descriptions for all 243 positions in the Internet and IT Position Descriptions HandiGuide.

Learn how your company compares in the area of compensation. Data as of January 2012.

The Janco Associates, Inc.  salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year by extensive internet-based and completed survey forms sent to businesses throughout the United States and Canada.  Our database contains over 50,000 data points.

The 159-page compensation study summarizes and compares data from 78 American metropolitan areas and 23 Canadian cities. Delivered in PDF format, it provides comparative information on more than 70 specific job titles:

• Five distinct IT executive positions
• Three director-level jobs
• More than 15 specific manager roles
• Dozens of technical staff positions

 

Historical Salaries

The BLS report For the last few months the number of individuals employed in IT has increased (seasonally adjusted) 43,800 in the last 12 months..  

Based on this data and interviews that Janco has conducted. Janco predicts there will be more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more flexible staffing models. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They are hiring more contractors for desktop and security services, and they are putting more applications such as remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they are looking to hire IT people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and project management. CIOs report that they're having trouble hiring IT people because either they can't find IT professionals with the right business skills or they can't afford them. All of this means more turnover in IT departments.

Despite recent economic reports that show jobless claims have been down for several consecutive weeks, employees reveal mixed feelings about what is in store at their employer, for the overall job market and for their pay check in the year ahead, according to the fourth-quarter employment confidence survey of 2,118 U.S. adults. The survey found employees are more confident in their job security and company's outlook in the next six months than in the third quarter. However, employees have also remained pessimistic about pay raises and grown more uncertain about the job market since the third quarter.

One of the drivers of IT jobs in the US is the number of High-Tech Manufacturing jobs that there are in the US. Since 1998, when outsourcing began in earnest, the number of high tech manufacturing jobs in the US, as a percentage of the total has continued to decline. At the same time China has come to be a force that needs to be reckoned with.

Nearly half (45 percent) of employees reported they do not expect a pay raise in the next 12 months, while approximately one-third (36 percent) said they believe they will get one and 19 percent said they are unsure. Those who thought they would receive a pay raise is down one percentage point from the third quarter and five points from the fourth quarter of 2009. Those in the West were even less optimistic where more than half (55 percent) do not expect a pay raise in the next 12 months, up from 48 percent in the region in the third quarter, compared with those in the Northeast (44 percent), Midwest (42 percent) and South (43 percent).

In the fourth quarter, 40 percent of employees reported their employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure, compensation, and benefits or other perks in the past six months, which is down from 55 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, when the majority of these job actions involved layoffs or layoff plans. In the past year, the highest incidence of employer actions shifted to compensation changes or cuts.

The survey found more than half (52 percent) of employees who reported at least some change indicated their company made changes to or reduced compensation in the past six months, up from 50 percent a year ago. One in four (27 percent) said their own compensation (pay, bonus, etc.) was reduced during the same period. In the fourth quarter, however, layoff reports dropped 11 points year-over-year with 46 percent of employees reporting their employers initiated or communicated layoffs in the past six months.

Employees are getting mixed signals from their employers and the market, so it's no surprise employee confidence in the fourth quarter reflects a mixed bag of optimism and caution. Employment confidence is very personal. While there are some recent positive indicators in the labor market, these don't capture the wide range of employer cuts and other actions employees see and feel on a regular basis.

Employees' sentiment about their job, company and market will likely remain tempered until they see consistent and sustained periods of growth, fewer cutbacks at work and among their friends' companies, and more people getting hired into positions that were either eliminated or put on hold during the recession.

The survey found while reported cutbacks in other areas declined or remained at the same level from the third quarter, health and dental benefit cuts peaked at the highest level in two years following steady quarterly increases. This quarter, 28 percent of employees who cited at least some changes reported cuts to their health and dental benefit in the past six months, compared with 22 percent in the third quarter and 17 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Unemployment Data

During the recession of 2009 - 2011 unemployment in the IT Industry had not been as high as the rest of the United States. Older workers had a higher unemployment rate than your ones. In addition, female high tech employees have not as well as their male counterparts. This is especially true for workers over the age of 55. The unemployment rate for women over the age of 55 for computer and math workers in 2010 was 9.4% versus 8.0% for men.

2012 IT Salary Survey - Fringe Benefits

Are you paying too much or too little to your information technology staff? Are you earning what you're worth? Whether employer or employee, it is important to know what other companies are paying in total compensation for a similar position in your area. Learn how your company compares in the area of compensation.

The Janco Associates, Inc.  salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year by extensive internet-based and completed survey forms sent to businesses throughout the United States and Canada. 

Cities Included in IT Salary Survey

Janco's IT Salary Survey includes the following 78 United States cities, as well as 23 selected cities in Canada

    

US Cities Included                             Order US Cities

Canadian Cities Included                 Order Canadian Cities

Job Titles Included in IT Salary Survey

Janco's Salary Survey includes the following the job titles in its IT Salary Survey.

    

IT Salary Survey Methodology

From the Janco Associates, Inc. database, compensation benchmark ranges are established for each normalized job position.  In analyzing the study data, the upper and lower quartiles are eliminated to determine  Benchmark Ranges.  The benchmark ranges are then used to assess the alignment of a company's actual compensation to the marketplace for each job function.  The results can be assessed using the following guidelines. 

Below Benchmark Range - Highly impacted by forces of the marketplace
Within Benchmark Range - Subject to the normal forces of the marketplace for similar job functions and responsibilities. 
Above Benchmark Range - Not subject to the forces of the marketplace

 

The Benchmark represents our assessment of the compensation level required for organizations to remain competitive and minimize the risk of losing employees to other organizations. Reviews were conducted from the standpoint of a comparison o base salary and, when appropriate, from the additional standpoint of total compensation. Total compensation is determined by adding the budgetary bonus amounts and an equivalent cash value for above-standard compensation to an individual's base salary. The compensation Study data was divided into two categories. Large companies are companies whose gross revenues are equal to or greater than $500MM. Mid-sized companies are companies whose gross revenues are less than $500MM.

Become A Survey Participant

Janco Associates, Inc. has published a biannual information technology compensation survey for over ten years.

Participate by providing us valid data and we will be able to download a complimentary copy of the summary results1  upon its completion. In addition,  you may be eligible to purchase the full study at a significant discount.

These results will be available in July.  To participate, simply click the Participate button below and complete the on-line Compensation Participation Survey.  

You can either download our participation excel spread sheet1 or click on the link below to enter you data via an on-line survey.  (Note: will be able to come back to modify the data you enter for 120 days)

Participate in the IT On-Line Salary Survey 

Please be assured that any compensation information provided to us will be held in the strictest confidence.

If you have any questions, please contact us via email at Contact Janco Associates.

1. You can qualify for a complete free copy of the PDF version of the study, if your enterprise provides at least ten valid data points as determined by Janco.  All other participants will qualify for the summary of the study only.