UK, U.S. IT Pros Top The Salary Charts

The United Kingdom and the United States are the most lucrative regions for IT professionals, according to the 2003 Information Technology Toolbox, Inc. (ITtoolbox) Salary Survey, which indicates that the two countries have the highest industry pay scales. IT professionals in the UK and U.S. can expect to earn an average annual salary in excess of US$80,000, with other regions lagging considerably behind.

U.S. supply chain and storage and specialists are at the high end of the salary spectrum (US$112,129 and US$108,346, respectively), while Linux (US$53,250) and networking (US$57,721) professionals are among the lowest paid in the industry.

Wireless specialists should head to Canada where the average salary in that discipline is more than US$176,000, but Oracle experts are a distant second at US$94,371. Supply chain experts are the most highly paid in 3 of the 9 countries surveyed.

The highest salary rates were for professionals with more than 15 years of experience for most of the countries in the survey, with notable exceptions. In South Africa, IT professionals with 8-10 years experience were earning the top pay level; and in the UK, those with 10-15 years of experience were rewarded with the highest salary.

Of the 3,000 individuals that participated in the ITtoolbox survey, nearly half reported that their most recent salary increase was between 0 and 5 percent, and more than one-quarter reported a salary increase of more than 10 percent.

More than half (51 percent) of the respondents cited an employer review as the reason for their most recent salary increase; 21 percent indicated that there was an employer change; 15 percent were financially rewarded with a promotion; and 10 percent cited miscellaneous reasons.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine reported a rise in salaries for certified IT professionals — the first in three years — with US$61,700 as the average across all certifications.

The study, conducted by Wilson Research Group, found an increase in salaries across nearly all Microsoft certification titles in 2003, compared to 2002. Developers top the salary chart with the Microsoft Certified Solution Developers (MCSD) on Visual Studio .NET bringing in US$82,300. The two most valued skills an IT professional can have according to this year’s results are data warehousing and software design, with average salaries of US$71,800 and US$71,700, respectively.

Women are getting closer to bridging the gender/income gap, with female respondents reporting an average US$59,400 annually, compared to U$62,000 for males — a difference of $2,600. The difference was $4,200 in 2001 and a staggering $10,000 in 2000.