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2008 Year IT Salary Survey
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Comparative Year Salary Survey 1996 - 2008

Are you paying too much or too little to your IT staff? Do you have IT job descriptions? 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. Data is as of January 2008.

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 compensation study (157 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.

Summary Results and Changes in Demand for IT Jobs 2008

Fringe Benefits

     

 

 

Salary News

05/01/2008
How should a CIO be compensated?

When CIOs start to think about compensation for their staffs, they need to consider their own compensation.  Some of the questions that they should ask themselves are:

• What are the basics of the annual wage package for CIOs of other companies?
• What is the preferred method for manifesting the compensation package into a time specific contract?
• Which elements of the equity compensation are most favored by CIOs? Why?
• How do CIOs value the different components of the compensation offer? What emphasis is placed on bonuses? Stocks? Wages?
• How does the CIO package set the tone for the other compensation programs offered to other Information Technology management team members?
• What language is important when it comes to the compensation in the employment contract?
• What are the 5-7 most important components of the employment contract to a CIO?
• Which components are the most challenging to negotiate? Why?
• Which components can be bargained away in favor of other, more important contract terms?
• What system is most effective when trying to update a CIO compensation package?
• What is the most common compensation structure for members of the management team? Why?
• What method is used to analyze the compensation structure for each CIO?
• What industry standards are applied to the compensation and employment contracts?
• What calculations and metrics are used to structure the CIO compensation?
• Which structural elements constitute the greatest amount of CIO pay?
• How is performance measurements detailed in the employment contract and compensation agreement?
• Which Information Technology positions are most closely tied to performance measurements? Why?
• How are complicated elements of the compensation plan analyzed and monitored?
• What procedure is used to peg compensation to other organization goals?
• What schedule is outlined for reviewing compensation against performance goals?
• Which incentive based elements of the package are preferred by CIOs?
• Which elements of the employment contract are most important to CIOs? Why?
• What negotiating strategies and techniques are most successful?
• What are the most difficult terms to negotiate? What can the CIO do to prepare for these hot topics?
• What language must the CIO or CIO insist upon when it comes to the employment agreement?
• What are the non-financial aspects of the contract? Why are these important to CIO level management?
• What must CIOs be careful about when it comes to date specific terms of the compensation and employment contract?
• How much time and money should a CIO budget for negotiating?
• What is the impact of poor negotiations on CIO performance?
• When is it best to work through a third party?
• What process is used to facilitate stalled negotiations?
• How are CIO level employment contracts changing? Why?
• What is the impact of these changes directly on the contracts? Which trends do you expect to benefit the CIO?
• What terms or issues can CIOs expect to deal with in the future, in light of recent trends?
• What techniques can management use to get a better compensation package?
• When does it make sense to go to the Board of Directors regarding pay? Why?
• Why is it important for both parties to be satisfied with the contract? How is this accomplished?
• What methods are CIOs using to keep their contracts progressive?
• How do the current tax laws influence changes to CIO employment contracts?
• What impact do corporate rules or policies have on the CIO compensation?
• Who is most actively involved in developing company policies that impact compensation? What is the trend?
• What are the challenges to CIOs who are looking to improve their package?
• What is the current thinking companies regarding deferred compensation? Why?
• How can the Board of Directors guide the employment contract process?
• What is the typical timeline for completing an agreement once the process has started?
• Who is most instrumental in facilitating the negotiations? Why?
• Which deadlines are most important in the employment contract?
• What are the biggest mistakes CIOs make when negotiating employment contracts?
• How consistent are the agreements across members of the management team?
• When is it allowable to operate without an employment contract? What are the risks?

04/25/2008
Google Tags Morgan Stanley For its CIO

(CNET News.com) Google has found its new chief information officer,  a programmer who rose through the ranks to run much of Morgan Stanley's computing infrastructure.

The new CIO was a managing director who led the Morgan Stanley Application Infrastructure group.

According to an internal Morgan Stanley memo, the new CIO will leave Morgan Stanley at the end of the month to pursue opportunities outside the firm.

The memo also indicated that the new CIO is no stranger to Google. While at Morgan Stanley, one of his projects was working on initial public offering of Google in 2004, the memo.

The last CIO at Google, left to become president of the EMI digital unit. Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that Morgan Stanley executive would be the new Google new CIO.

Running the Google computing infrastructure is a daunting challenge on which the companys success hinges. Google not only has thousands of servers housed in at least 36 data centers scattered around the globe, but also a build-it-yourself culture that means the company is responsible for maintaining much of its own technology.

The CIO worked for Morgan Stanley computing operations for nearly 14 years including having worked on first Morgan Stanley Web site, its workstation software, and its intranet.

04/22/2008
H-1B visa program is not working

H-1B visa program is not working as it should be based on the statistics that have been given to congress:

• 65,000 H-1B visas are issued each year
• 3,117 H-1B visas were issued to Microsoft in 2006 and the average wage for those holders was $100,000 including benefits.
• 19,000 H-1B visas were issued to companies based in India in 2006
• $50,000 was the median compensation paid for H-1B visa holders in 2006

04/21/2008
Baby boomer retirements will impact IT

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says one in four workers will be 55 or older. And particularly in IT, there is not a big influx of new talent. According to the Computing Research Association, computer science enrollments dropped 14% each year between 2004 and 2006.

Although IT organizations certainly understand these workforce trends, many are not taking significant measures to mitigate the risks that the loss of intellectual capital seems to portend. Even outside of IT, many companies seem unconcerned by boomer retirements. In a 2006 survey of 488 companies only 42% of the respondents said that the aging workforce was a significant issue, and 29% said it had little or no significance.

And in a nationwide study of 550 human resources managers conducted by Monster.com last summer (view PDF), only 12% of the respondents said they consider knowledge retention a high priority within their companies, even though one-third said they expect at least 20% of their workforce to retire in the next decade.

The inescapable conclusion seems to be that many businesses are perfectly content to see their boomers walk out the door. And because so few organizations have taken the retirement issue seriously, companies that want to transfer knowledge from older to younger workers have few models to follow. As a result, those that are attempting to get ahead of the retirement wave are finding themselves pretty much on their own.

04/18/2008
AT&T Layoffs Will Impact 4,500

(IDG News Service) AT&T Inc. plans to lay off 1.5% of its employees, primarily in management, in an effort to streamline its operations, the company said today.

AT&T had about 310,000 employees at the end of 2007, meaning the layoffs would affect about 4,650 workers. The layoffs are the "next step" in streamlining company operations in an effort to operate more efficiently after recent mergers between parent company SBC, the old AT&T and BellSouth, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

AT&T expects its total number of employees to remain stable in 2008 as the company hires additional employees to support growth areas, AT&T said in the filing. In 2007, the company added about 7,000 employees, said an AT&T spokesman.

This initiative is part of the companys move from a collection of regional companies to one AT&T focused on customers, AT&T said in the filing.

The layoffs mean AT&T will take a  one-time charge of $374 million during the first quarter of 2008. AT&T is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings Tuesday.

AT&T reported a net income of $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007. It's revenue for the quarter was $30.3 billion.

04/15/2008
IT Becoming a Male Bastion

(eWeek) While women hold 51 percent of professional jobs in the United States, they make up only 26 percent of the IT work force, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Furthermore, fewer women worked in IT in 2008 than in 2000.

But the loss of women in the technology field begins long before they reach the professional level. The proportion of CS (computer science) bachelor's degrees awarded to women has fallen from 36 to 21 percent between 1983 and 2006.

Dr. Stephen Bloch, a professor in the Department of Math and Computer Science at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, told eWEEK that computer science degree enrollments have been in the toilet since 2001.

04/14/2008
What CIOs and CTOs need to do in order to succeed

CIOs and CTOs need to be part of the executive management team in order to succeed.  They must:

• CIOs and CTOs must be trusted contributor to executive thinking.
  CIOs and CTOs who perform well establish a strong connection with executive management and are key providers of insights to the executive team about new business opportunities, ways to speed up product introduction, or other potential technology-enabled business changes.
• CIOs and CTOs must propose new solutions to solve business problems.
  CIOs and CTOs that are in tune with business unit issues surface opportunities and direct their staff to solve business problems, like paper-intensive sales lead handling or cumbersome manufacturing processes.
• CIOs and CTOs must hire, retain, and develop a loyal staff.
  Some IT execs describe high job satisfaction and very low turnover in IT, even for highly marketable skills. Why? Because career and employee development is a priority of the CIO who makes the time for his or her team.
• CIOs and CTOs must take time to learn and test ideas.
  CIOs and CTOs are the thought leaders in their firms about the business uses of technology and the primary guide of IT strategic thinking. CIOs and CTOs who pause to learn from others and reflect will find that new ideas and a refreshed perspective keep the job fresh and their organizations energized.

04/14/2008
Private sector pay should keep rising

(Reuters) -- U.S. private sector wage growth should continue to accelerate in the months ahead on the back of a healthy employment climate, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based news publisher, said its revised third-quarter Wage Trend Indicator rose to 100.86 from the final second-quarter index of 100.72. BNA put the initial third-quarter reading at 100.92.

"We expect year-over-year wage increases to continue to accelerate modestly, even though the pace of job growth has slowed recently," said economist Kathryn Kobe, who worked on the development of the index for BNA.

The indicator recorded its ninth straight quarterly increase for the first time since 1996-1998, BNA said.

A sustained increase in the indicator generally foreshadows increased pressure for higher wages, BNA said.

04/13/2008
Signs That Your Job is at Risk

Your job may be at risk when:

• There is a new CIO or manager whom you report to that you do not have a prior relationship with
• Your company has new ownership
• You have been asked to re-apply for your existing job
• Your desk has been moved to an out of the way location or your office size has been decreased
• You are directed to do everything in writing
• You are not invited to team meetings
• You are not given sufficient resources to achieve your goals
• Your company is trying to hire someone that could fill your existing position
• You now have less responsibility
• You are no longer popular with your peers

04/01/2008
Dell to Eliminate 3,200 Jobs
Dell Inc., the world's second largest PC vendor, plans to cut costs by $3 billion as it slashes the price of materials and components going into its gadgets and reduces operating expenses, including 5,600 jobs in addition to the 3,200 it has already eliminated.

As part of its cost-cutting measures, Dell plans to close a desktop-PC manufacturing plant in Austin. A massive shift in customer preference for notebooks over the past three years was also a major factor in the decision to close the plant, said a Dell executive.

The company has already reduced its workforce by 3,200 people and plans to cut around 5,600 more jobs.

03/28/2008
H1-B Visa Battle Rages
(Computerworld) WASHINGTON — Stymied so far in their efforts to get Congress to allow more skilled foreign workers into the U.S., H-1B visa supporters are asking the Bush administration to extend the time that foreign graduates of U.S. universities can work on student visas from one year to 29 months.

The proposed extension is a stop-gap plan that wouldn't increase the federal government's cap on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each year. But it would buy extra time for foreign students who graduate from college in the U.S. this year.

A foreign student needs a degree to qualify for an H-1B visa, but seniors who are graduating this spring won't have their degrees before next Tuesday — the day that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting H-1B petitions for the government's 2009 fiscal year.

The USCIS may get more than enough applications for all of the available visas — 85,000 all told, including 20,000 set aside for people who hold advanced degrees from U.S. universities — on April 1 alone. That means upcoming graduates likely will have to wait until next year to apply. And if they didn't succeed then in getting H-1B visas through the government's random lottery process, they could be forced to leave the U.S. under current student-visa rules.

Proponents of changing those rules say that increasing the amount of time a foreign graduate could work in the U.S., under a program referred to as Optional Practical Training, would give students a better chance of getting H-1B visas. In addition, the proposed change could be made administratively, without any legislative action. Supporters of the idea have been urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the USCIS, to approve the extension.

03/25/2008
Six Steps to Take if you are Laid off

You are laid off – Now what

03/24/2008
What are the ways you can scuttle your career

Nine sure ways to scuttle your career are:

• Have a chip on your shoulder
• Decide for yourself what is important
• Protect yourself and your associates at the expense of your employer
• Have a 9 to 5 attitude
• Issue ultimatums
• Do not acknowledge when you are wrong
• Burn your bridges
• Do not listen to others
• Have a closed mind to new approaches and technologies

03/20/2008
H-1B Rules Set For Lottery

The USCIS will hold a lottery, similar to what it did last year, if it receives more than 65,000 visa applications under the H-1B cap. An additional 20,000 visas will be available for foreign nationals who receive advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The government will begin accepting visas on April 1 for the 2009 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Under the rule, the USCIS will prohibit companies from filing multiple H-1B petitions for the same employee. These changes will ensure that companies filing H-1B petitions subject to congressionally mandated numerical limits have an equal chance to employ an H-1B worker, the agency said in a statement.

If caught, prospective employers risk having all of their petitions for H-1B visas denied or revoked. There is an exception, however. The rule does not preclude related employers, such as a parent company and its subsidiary, from filing petitions on behalf of the same worker for different positions, based on a legitimate need.

03/18/2008
Research Finds MBA Nearly Doubles Salary Outlook for IT
Robert H Smith School of Business - U of Maryland - Firms in the United States value IT professionals MBA degrees much more than IT experience, according to new research. An IT professional with an MBA degree earns 46 percent more than a counterpart with only a bachelors degree and 37 percent more than one with any other masters degree, according to the study, published in the Management Science journal.

University of Maryland research confirms that getting an MBA is the single best move you can make to increase your value as an IT professional in todays market, said the assistant professor of decision, operations and information technologies and lead author of the study. Education is more valuable than experience because it provides more durable and versatile conceptual skills. In contrast, IT experience has high rate of obsolescence — learning new technologies only makes a professional valuable for a few years when those skills are in high demand. An MBA education teaches how to evaluate new technologies or how to strategically invest in and manage IT projects, which makes for a more valuable long-term employee that can use those skills in a variety of situations.

On average, in dollar terms (deflated to 1999 figures), IT professionals with MBAs earn more than $24,000 per year than those with only bachelorÂ’s degrees and more than $17,000 per year than those with other masterÂ’s degrees after controlling for a variety of demographic and institutional factors.

03/17/2008
Only 31.4% of All CIOs report to the CEO

According to a survey by the SIM only 31.4% of all CIOs who are members of SIM report to the Chief Executive Officer.  The sample size was 130 but it did include a large number of publicly traded companies.