salaries

ALSO NOTED: HP gobbles up EDS; Salaries shrink for software developers;

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

> HP gobbles up EDS. Article
> Salaries shrink for software developers. Article
> .me is here to stay. Article
> How IT workers would spend that $600 rebate. Article
> New fruit from Blackberry. Article
> Outsourcing comes home. Article

And Finally ... Are you a leader or a follower? Article

H-1B abuse pays off

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

American IT professionals often complain that they are being undercut by the H1-B Visa system when companies hire foreign workers at lower salaries even when qualified, tech-savvy U.S. citizens are available. If you need evidence that this practice is taking place, you need look no further than the Justice Department's settlement with iGate Mastech. The government charged the Pittsburgh-based computer consulting company with placing 30 job announcements between May and June of 2006 for computer programmers that expressly favored H-1B visa holders while excluding U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and other legal U.S. workers. It appears that gaming the system may have been worth it to the company, which paid only $45,000 in civil penalties to settle allegations that it discriminated against U.S. citizens.

To read more about abuse of the system:
- See this ComputerWorld article

ALSO NOTED: All eyes on Google's new CIO; Salaries are up, down, well, which is it?;

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:59:58 -0400

> Salaries are up, down, well, which is it? Article
> A tale from the front lines. Article
> Hot IT jobs. Article
> All eyes on Google's new CIO. Article

And Finally… Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Article

Are you underpaid?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Salary is always a touchy subject, especially your own salary. But in the world of technology, it's important to keep tabs on where you stand compared to your colleagues. Janco Associates recently reported that 22 U.S. CIOs currently make more than $2 million a year. Janco also reported that the mean salary for CIOs at large companies is now $171,200 to $181,240, which some experts say is still too low. "If you pay your CIO $180,000 a year, you're going to get a clerk," says Paul Strassmann, an IT productivity expert and former senior IT executive at Xerox, Kraft and NASA.

For more on where you stand on CIO salaries:
- See this Baseline.com article

Gender gap in tech salaries

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:59:59 -0500

A man is likely to make more money than a woman in a technology job. According to a salary survey by career site Dice.com, the average salary last year for male technology professionals was $76,582, and for women, it was $67,507. Dice collected data from more than 19,000 technology professionals who use its site; respondents either filled out an online survey or replied to a request for information sent via email. "We feel comfortable that what we're seeing here is in fact representative of what's happening in the marketplace," said Thomas Silver, senior vice president of marketing at Dice. The gap was also wide in the retail, mail-order and eCommerce industries where men made 15 percent more than women. The survey found the gap narrowest in manufacturing, where men made 6.4 percent more than women.

However, the survey found that the difference shrinks as people work their way up the organizational chain. Female project managers earned $100,436 last year. Men made a little more at $101,569. Overall, Dice said that the average IT salary increased last year by 1.7 percent to $74,570, with pay varying by region. The three highest-paying areas were Silicon Valley, at $93,876; Boston at $83,465; and the Baltimore/Washington area at $81,750. Meanwhile, Detroit ranked at the bottom of 16 metro areas, with an average tech salary of $67,271.

For more on salary disparities:
- See this ComputerWorld article

IT salaries on the rise

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:59:59 -0500

IT salaries are rising, slowly, according to Computerworld's annual salary survey. The report found that salaries have gone up by about 3.7 percent in 2007. The one good thing you can say always about the IT market is that it is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics thinks that U.S. IT workers will earn more than double the $36,140 median income for full-time workers this year. But like everyone else, they are hit by double-digit increases in gas prices, high costs for groceries and other necessities. IT workers have been on a pay see-saw for the last five years.

After a drop in 2002, IT pay has been slowly recovering, according to the latest statistics. That can be seen in this year's survey, which found that 75 percent of respondents' salaries have increased. More importantly, demand for specialized IT skills is on the rise. So the good news is that salaries are good. The big question is: can it last?

For more on IT salaries:
- See this Computerworld article

Did you get a raise this year?

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:59:56 -0400

Money counts for CIOs. They're making more money than ever before and the job is growing in importance at many companies. CIO Magazine released its 2008 "State of the CIO" report after surveying nearly 600 executives from companies of all different sizes. More top IT executives hold the CIO title and more report to the CEO. No matter what size the company is, the job is growing in responsibility and salary. For companies with less than $100 million in revenue, the job is now paying $148,300, up from $138,200 the year before. And bigger companies are paying more than that. Firms with revenues of $100 million to $999 million are paying $213,500, up from $184,000. The largest companies with revenues of $1 billion or more are paying CIOs $344,400, up from a healthy $281,900 a year ago.

For more on salaries:
- check out CIO Magazine article

Outsourcing in a more connected world

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0400

In today's issue, we highlight a couple of stories on outsourcing. It's been interesting to watch the market evolve over the last few years. I remember interviewing a Silicon Valley CEO a couple of years ago who made the case that while salaries for engineers were much lower in India than in the Valley, it wouldn't last forever. It now appears that salaries are beginning to rise in India and outsourcers are beginning to look for talent elsewhere--many are turning to China, Canada and even back to the United States. It's clear that India's value will have to expand beyond delivering just cost advantages if it is to continue to attract the demand it has so effectively and aggressively garnered over the past 5 years or so. Indeed, the global outsourcing market is poised for change in the next year or so and that the action will no longer be the exclusive domain of India. We'll see a lot more companies find partners in China and many will begin setting up shop in the U.S or Canada--just as Wipro announced it would do this week and as Microsoft reported a few weeks ago. To further prove the new trend, Francisco Partners, a technology investment firm, has said that it would invest $48 million in private equity into DarwinSuzsoft, a Chinese IT outsourcing firm. Please feel free to bring me up to date on your offshore outsourcing plans...I'd like to provide as full a picture as possible about the evolving outsourcing patterns. Enjoy the issue. -Patty

Baby boomers set to retire. Are YOU ready?

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:59:59 -0400

Thousands of baby boomers will soon be retiring--sure, we hear it over and over in the media, but what, specifically, are CIOs doing to prepare for the mass exodus? Not a lot, at least according to a Computerworld survey. In their latest Vital Signs survey, 60 percent of the 233 respondents said that their organizations haven't taken any steps to keep retirement-age IT workers from leaving. Still, David Foote, chief research officer at Foote Partners, told Computerworld that some companies are beginning to cut high-priced retirement-age IT workers to ease the burden posed by their high salaries. Other interesting numbers from the survey: 19 percent of respondents said they've established flexible schedules to accommodate IT workers nearing an exit, while 12 percent said that they've offered part-time work, and 4 percent said that they've offered delayed-retirement plans.

To read what other CIOs are doing to retain the knowledge:
- see this Computerworld article

IT staff, budgets and effectiveness up this year

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 20:01:39 -0400

If you're in IT these days, life is looking pretty good, at least according to the latest IT Spending, Staffing and Technology Survey from Computer Economics. The survey finds that just about everything is going up for IT execs, including staffing, budgets, and IT effectiveness (as measured in spend-per-user). Surprising to many is the fact that IT budgets are up across the board--by five percent and felt in almost every industry in every sector. In terms of where the money is being spent, the fastest growing areas are personnel, application software and outsourcing; spending per desktop is currently falling. Outsourcing continues to garner mush of the money. Some 62 percent of companies outsource at least some of their application development work. Experienced staff are still are still in high demand at most companies and in most industries (which may explain why salaries are also on the rise). Fifty-two percent of the 200 companies surveyed said they were adding staff, while only 16 percent anticipated layoffs.

For more on the most recent trends:
- read the details in CIOUpdate. Article
- also, see ComputerWorld's piece on the 12 most
important security skills. Article