Crisis, what crisis? IT workers swimming in cash

Lia Timson
Thursday, 05 June 2008 08:35

IT People - Enterprise

High interest rates and escalating fuel prices might be hurting some, but IT workers should be faring better than most. For the second time in as many weeks a national salary survey has pointed to IT as the lucky recipient of higher-than-inflation salary increases. Some prized jobs are even commanding 20% and 30% more money than a year ago.

The 2008 Hays Salary Survey looked at the salaries paid or offered by 1700 client employers on more than 12,000 vacancies handled by the recruiter over the past 12 months. It found there’s no shortage of cash in IT departments in Australia and New Zealand.

Although it recorded a 3% to 6% salary increase across all industries, similar to that observed last week by the Australian Institute of Management’s National Salary Survey, it showed employers are willing to dig deeper to attract and maintain IT talent.

Nearly two in 10 employers offered between 6% and 10% more cash to IT workers than a year ago, while 12% offered more than a 10% rise. Nearly half of those surveyed upped IT salaries in line with other industries, between 3% and 6%. None offered less money.

Typical system architect salaries rose from $125,000 to $140,000 in Sydney, and from $100,000 to $$120,000 in Canberra. Voice engineers that were commanding $90,000 a year in Sydney and Melbourne can now move jobs for a $120,000 pay packet.

Increases of 5% and 10% were recorded in Auckland and Wellington for Unix and other system engineers.

Perth CIOs have seen their salary increase from $175,000 to $200,000, but the rises are not confined to the top of the career ladder. Helpdesk support staff with one or two years experience can now earn 11.6% more than a year ago, while test analysts gained a 10% rise in Wellington and application support analysts pocketed an extra 20% in Auckland. (Continues on page 2)