I.T. salary survey posted

Those things are pointless.

There's a lot more to salary computation than your title, years on the job and region.

I make around 40% more than the stupid chart says. A lot of guys in IT would make more money if they didn't act like douchecopters and showered occasionally.
 
Remember. Averages are averages. Some make more, some make less. Can be a LOT more and a LOT less, depending. Everyone thinks they should make at least average when they really shouldn't. There are a lot of sub-par IT people in the field. Just because you are really busy getting things done doesn't mean you're an average or above average employee.

I personally hate these surveys. The IT field is not a commodity. Everyone's environment, business requirements, and required skillsets vary and a small change in those can GREATLY impact the type of person you need. I was a Network Manager at a company for a number of years and they started using salary surveys. If you were below 80% of average for the region and you got good reviews you were accelerated on pay increases. If you were at 120% or higher you didn't get a raise, no matter what. If you were to get a 3% raise you'd get a 3% bonus instead until your salary got back below 120%. That's idiotic. It drove off the top talent. I got top ratings every year I was there but hit that limit...finally I said "Thanks but I'm leaving!" and got a 40% pay increase elsewhere due to my capabilities.

These are interesting talking points and that's about it.
 
I'm making quite a bit more than the "average".

I attribute the difference to my level of awesomeness.
 
After looking at that, I'm definitely the most overpaid son of a bitch in the world. Either that, or I'm really good..... nah.
 
what's a bonus? so after a year at the new job, im over the average...
i like how they have network admin, network engineer, but only a system admin... no system engineer...

and if you do multiple roles, you just average the positions right? :-p
 
I found that these surveys don't paint a proper picture since they do not include the fringe benefits. For example, I just turned down an opportunity to switch to a job which would pay me 20% more than I am making now but instead of providing health insurance I would "only" get a $1,000 stipend per month (in addition to the pay, the stipend stays with the company and the pay the insurer directly) that I can apply to whatever provider I pick.

In order to receive the same coverage that I enjoy now (family) I would need to pay $1,800 per month, so the 1k from the stipend and then another $800/month (taxable) on top of that. All of a sudden the 20% raise didn't look that appealing anymore when paired with the fact that it would bump us into the next higher tax bracket as well which would instantly remove another 3% from my 20% raise.

When counting health insurance and other non-monetary benefits which one can assign a monetary value to my salary is about 20k higher than my paycheck, and that's 20k I am not being taxed on. So choose wisely before you get either upset about some numbers on the Internet or decide to take a new job elsewhere.
 
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Hmm, I'm a bit below the US national average for my position, but well above the average for my experience. I'll settle for that.
(I'm also below the Norwegian average starting wage for my education, but I blame my decision to work in government-funded research for that).

One fringe benefit to socialized health care: It makes it that much easier to compare salaries, since your coverage will be the same (and not taken out of your pay) anyway.
 
I make a great hourly wage, north of $90k if I had 40 hour weeks, I just don't get many hours. :(
Our customer base has cut way back on their IT spending and only call for emergencies.

Changing jobs kind of sucks for the same reason, poor economy means less IT spending in general, means way fewer high paying jobs available. :(

Many of the IT want ads I see posted online are asking for all kinds of certs and experience and then they only want to pay burger flipper wages. WTF is up with that?!

You want a certified professional, you friggin' pay for it! Let's see if I can get a certified plumber or electrician to come work on my house for $15/hr. :rolleyes:

When is all the bank bailouts, stimulus spending, and the "Hope & Change" thing supposed to start improving things? :mad:
 
Looks like I'm paid more than the average Systems administrator on that map, but I don't quite fit those categories either.

Correction: If I go into detail and look up Network Engineer or Network Architect, I'm at the lower end of those.
 
Changing jobs kind of sucks for the same reason, poor economy means less IT spending in general, means way fewer high paying jobs available. :(
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There are tons of IT jobs out there, especially in networking. You just might have to move to land a decent one depending on where you are currently. We can't even find anyone to fill a part time role in NorCal because there are more vacancies than qualified people at the moment. That kind of situation leads to higher wages, not lower.
 
LOL... yeah I knew I was underpaid, our company did a salary analysis a couple years ago and everyone in IT was underpaid by anywhere from $5k to $10k. This says that as an IT Manager I was underpaid by about $20k (Nevada/Mountain Region).
 
mattjw916 said:
Those things are pointless.

There's a lot more to salary computation than your title, years on the job and region.

I make around 40% more than the stupid chart says. A lot of guys in IT would make more money if they didn't act like douchecopters and showered occasionally.
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^So this.

Apparently I'm overpaid 40% as well....
 
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