ERP and Sarbanes-Oxley Top List of Highest Paying Skills and Experience
Gender Gap Narrows Slightly in 2006
West Coast Metro Areas Post Strongest Salary Gains
NEW YORK, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Dice, the leading career site for
technology and engineering professionals, today announced the results of
its 2006 Annual Salary Survey. The survey of more than 19,000 technology
professionals found that IT salaries in the U.S. increased 5.2 percent to
$73,308 in 2006 from $69,700 in 2005. The complete survey results
illustrate key industry trends, including the continued tightening of the
technology job market. Highlights of the survey include:
* The high value of experience in specialized areas such as ERP,
Sarbanes-Oxley and CRM
* A rise in entry level salaries as companies increase their efforts to
recruit new workers to the field to fulfill the growing talent gap
* A continuing gender gap as women in technology earned an average of
9.7 percent less than men
* The growth of West Coast technology markets like Silicon Valley,
San Diego, Seattle and Los Angeles, which all saw high percentage salary
growth last year
The overall increase in technology salaries can be traced back to the
continued improvement in the technology job market. Strong demand for
technology professionals to fulfill available jobs is driving many
companies to use higher salaries to attract and retain technology
professionals. The survey found that starting salaries outpaced the overall
national average, with an increase of 13.1 percent to $42,414 in 2006.
Those with one to two years of technology experience also saw strong gains,
with a 13.8 percent increase to $46,935.
"By offering competitive salary and benefit plans, companies are more
likely to attract and retain new employees, which will help fill the
growing gap in available talent," said Scot Melland, president and CEO of
Dice Holdings, Inc. "The survey also found that higher salaries often
correlate with higher job satisfaction, which underscores the importance of
regularly reviewing compensation."
Top Paying Skills and Experience
Technology professionals earning the highest salaries in 2006 possessed
hard-to-find, specialized experience in areas such as Enterprise Resource
Planning or ERP ($96,161), Sarbanes-Oxley compliance ($91,998) and Customer
Relationship Management or CRM ($90,499). Additionally some of the most
consistently in-demand skills on Dice like Oracle and Java/J2EE also
commanded top salaries ($84,692 and $82,851 respectively) as companies
strived to fill those positions. For 2006, Sybase was the top paying
database skill ($85,049), while SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) led
all programming skills with $89,243.
Gender Gap
The gender gap narrowed slightly in 2006, as women in technology earned
an average of $67,542 or 9.7 percent less than their male counterparts.
Comparatively, women earned 10.9 percent less than men in 2005. The gender
gap was evident across all industries included in the survey, with
medical/pharmaceutical and telecommunications showing the largest
differences in pay (11.5 percent less and 10 percent less respectively).
Women holding database administrator positions showed the greatest salary
gap with more than a 15 percent difference from male database
administrators.
However, women did show significant gains in salary for specific job
titles and as a result they actually earned more than their male
counterparts in certain jobs. In 2006, female help desk professionals
earned $40,937 (4.8 percent more than men), technical writers earned
$73,816 (2.5 percent more than men), and IT executives (CEO, CIO, CTO, vice
presidents and directors) earned $109,912 (1.4 percent more than men).
Younger female employees also posted smaller salary gaps than older female
employees, as women age 18 to 24 earned nearly the same salary as men
($41,700 versus $41,722 respectively). Women age 25 to 29 earned 7.6
percent less than men ($55,480 versus $60,031 respectively), compared to
gaps of at least 10% in all age groups over 30.
Geography:
Salaries also increased across the majority of surveyed metro areas. In
2006, Silicon Valley once again ranked as the highest paying metro area for
tech professionals with an average salary of $90,310, up 5.7 percent from
2005. Other top paying cities include: Boston ($80,308), New York
($80,006), and Baltimore/Washington D.C. ($79,911). The survey also showed
strong gains for West Coast metro areas, such as San Diego (up 10.1 percent
to $79,416), Seattle (up 9.1 percent to $79,787) and Los Angeles (up 7.7
percent to $79,583).
Industry:
Banking, financial and insurance was once again the highest paying
industry for tech professionals with an average salary of $82,504 in 2006,
while telecommunications and computer software followed behind with average
salaries of $78,003 and $77,582 respectively. However, it was the retail
and e-commerce industry that posted the strongest salary gains last year
with a 14.2 percent increase to $63,830.
Survey Methodology:
The Dice Salary Survey was administered online among 19,182 registered
Dice job seekers and visitors between August 2 and November 30, 2006.
Respondents were invited to participate in the survey through a
notification on the Dice homepage, and registered job seekers were sent an
email invitation. A cookie methodology was used to ensure that there was no
duplication of responses between or within the various sample groups, and
duplicate responses from a single email address were removed.
Dice currently lists more than 91,000 permanent, contract and
consulting jobs nationwide for a wide variety of positions from
programmers, software engineers and system administrators to CIOs and other
technology professionals.
Table 1: Tech Salaries, 2005 - 2006
2005 2006
U.S. Average $69,700 $73,308
Bank / Financial / Insurance $76,092 $82,504
Telecommunications $72,430 $78,003
Computer Software $74,730 $77,582
Government / Defense $69,078 $75,086
Medical / Pharmaceutical $71,714 $72,717
Manufacturing $66,732 $71,878
Internet Services $65,426 $71,854
Computer Hardware $66,462 $69,987
Retail / Mail Order / E-Commerce $55,909 $63,830
Table 2: Percent Women Earn Less Than Men by Industry, 2006
Medical / Pharmaceutical -11.5 %
Telecommunications -10.0 %
Computer Software -9.8 %
Bank / Financial / Insurance -9.5 %
Government / Defense -8.4 %
Retail / Mail Order / E-Commerce -8.3 %
Manufacturing -8.0 %
Internet Services -7.5 %
Computer Hardware -7.1 %
Table 3: Metro Area Salaries, 2005 - 2006
2005 2006
Silicon Valley $85,430 $90,310
Boston $79,211 $80,308
New York $76,382 $80,006
Baltimore/Washington D.C. $75,593 $79,911
Seattle $73,105 $79,787
Los Angeles $73,911 $79,583
San Diego $72,163 $79,416
Denver $74,823 $77,317
Sacramento $72,355 $75,197
Chicago $71,496 $75,154
Phoenix $70,023 $74,976
Dallas/Ft. Worth $71,494 $74,656
Philadelphia $71,881 $72,786
Table 4: Average Salary by Experience, 2005 - 2006
2005 2006
Less than 1 year $37,471 $42,414
1 - 2 years $41,229 $46,935
3 - 5 years $52,363 $55,922
6 - 10 years $68,355 $72,707
11 - 14 years $80,933 $83,907
More than 15 Years $86,332 $90,125
Table 5: Average Salary by Title, 2005 - 2006
2005 2006
IT Executive (CEO, CIO, CTO, VP, Dir.) $104,504 $108,578
Project Manager $93,009 $96,475
Database Administrator $81,301 $85,441
Software Engineer $78,807 $83,524
MIS Manager $82,824 $82,510
Business Analyst $77,158 $82,288
Developer: Database $73,768 $79,911
Security Analyst $74,874 $79,412
Developer: Systems $72,732 $78,476
Developer: Applications $73,636 $78,037
Developer: Client/Server $75,941 $74,602
Table 6: Average Salary for Popular Technology Skills and Experience, 2006
2006
ERP $96,161
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) $91,998
CRM $90,499
SOAP $89,243
Solaris $87,476
AIX $87,309
SAP $86,149
Microsoft Project $85,870
Siebel $85,861
Sybase $85,049
Table 7: Average Salary by Satisfaction, 2006
Overall - Satisfaction % of total Avg. Salary
Very satisfied 14 % $91,234
Somewhat satisfied 39 % $80,046
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 14 % $70,497
Somewhat dissatisfied 21 % $62,845
Very dissatisfied 11 % $50,180
About Dice
Dice is the leading career site for technology and engineering
professionals. With a 16-year track record of meeting the ever-changing
needs of technology professionals, companies and recruiters, our specialty
focus and exposure to highly skilled professional communities enable
employers to reach hard-to-find, experienced and qualified technology and
engineering candidates.
About Dice Holdings, Inc.
Dice Holdings, Inc., a leading global online recruitment company with
operations in fourteen countries, provides services to help recruiters,
consultants and businesses hire and train highly qualified professionals
through its six businesses: Dice, the leading online career site for
technology and engineering professionals (http://www.dice.com);
ClearanceJobs, the premier secure job board focused exclusively on
candidates with active or current U.S. Government security clearances
(http://www.clearancejobs.com); eFinancialCareers, the leading global
career site network for jobs and career management in investment banking,
asset management and securities (http://www.efinancialcareers.com);
JobsintheMoney, the leading targeted career site for accounting, finance,
retail banking and wealth management professionals in the United States
(http://www.jobsinthemoney.com); Targeted Job Fairs, the premier producer
of career fairs and open houses for technology and engineering, accounting
and finance, and security-cleared candidates nationwide
(http://www.targetedjobfairs.com); and MeasureUp, a leading destination for
IT certification practice tests, assessments and online courses
(http;//www.measureup.com).
SOURCE Dice Holdings, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.dice.com
CONTACT:
Jennifer McCullam of Financial Dynamics,
+1-212-850-5600, or jennifer.mccullam@fd.com, for Dice Holdings,
Inc.
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