Silicon Valley's IT salaries stall

High-tech workers in the Bay Area are still losing out on wages. Their salaries peaked in 2000 at an average of $120,000 and never got that high again.

A new Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that the average IT wages sank to $87,300 after the dot-com bust in 2002, and by mid-2009, it had recovered only to $105,000. Nevertheless, the bureau reported a slow, steady pay growth since the 1990s. The average salary has grown 27 percent since 1998, from $83,100 to $105,500.

"We can't forget what 2000 was like," said Amar Mann, the labor bureau economist who co-wrote the report, noting that in the early part of that year, valley workers were cashing out their stock options. "It was a crazy time with massive amounts of venture capital being poured into the valley, and huge run-ups in the Nasdaq. In real terms, Silicon Valley workers are better off now in their wages than they were in 1998."

What does this signal for the future? We're not really sure. Salaries are no longer climbing the way they had in the past.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of essential tech jobs such as security that continue to grow. The situation in tech-rich Silicon Valley may be more volatile than the rest of the country where IT jobs are not as vulnerable to changing tides.

For more on Silicon Valley wages:
- see this San Jose Mercury News article

Related Articles:
Security clearance salaries level off
Survey: Tech's high-end salaries shrinking