Beverley Head
Thursday, 02 September 2010 16:30
IT People -
People
Page 1 of 3
Salary growth among ICT professionals is slowing, particularly in the private sector where growth slumped to 3 per cent in the 12 months to the end of May. Almost half - 45 per cent – of all private sector ICT employees got no pay rise at all last year.
This is well down on salary increases in other sectors. Average weekly earnings in Australia rose 5.9 per cent in the 12 months to February 2010 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
But according to the Australian Computer Society which released its annual salary survey today, the average ICT salary increase in all sectors public and private, which was 3.3 per cent during the 12 months, was still ahead of the rise in the cost of living. During the same period the CPI rose 2.9 per cent growth.
Last year, as Australia ground its way through the GFC, the ACS survey found ICT salaries rose 4 per cent on average, which was down from the 2008 peak of 4.9 per cent.
Conducted for the ACS by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia, the survey reflects the responses of 1,090 ACS members. It is therefore only a small sample of the overall ICT skills market – as the ACS has 18,000 members – representing just 4 per cent of the total ICT workforce according to Bruce Lakin, ACS ceo.
At first glance membership of the Australian Computer Society appears to be a costly business. According to the ACS’ survey a CIO would expect to receive salary packages of $150,000-$240,000 a year – well down on the $200,000-$350,000 packages that CIOs are currently being offered according to recruitment firm Peoplebank, which unveiled is quarterly salary survey earlier this week.
It is important to note however that Peoplebank’s survey reflects packages now on offer, as opposed to incumbent salaries which are generally lower, and which are what are being tracked in the ACS survey. And while the ACS is noting that most incumbents are still negotiating pay increases, salaries on offer for new roles have stalled according to Peoplebank CEO Peter Acheson who doesn’t expect them to improve much before 2011.
There could therefore be a small window for incumbents to close the gap on new role salaries.
