Salary Survey: One Step Forward, Two Back

By Kathleen Melymuka

October 28, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - This year's raises were modest in comparison with those of recent years and were rendered even more so by bonus cuts. Pay increases for the majority averaged 6%, but the 9.5% who took a cut in salary lost twice that much. Moreover, while 12% took home bigger bonuses this year, 18% received smaller ones.

Some companies are rolling bonus money into base pay to subsidize higher salaries, making the net effect of those 6% raises even less. Just over three-quarters of the information security managers who responded to our survey, for example, lost more than 40% of their bonus this year, but some of that might have gone into their above-average 8% salary hike. The good news is that while bonuses are generally given at a manager's discretion, making them easy targets when a budget needs to be trimmed, salary increases are less likely to be taken away once given.

In previous years, certain IT skills just about guaranteed the good life, particularly in high-flying industries. Not this year. For example, 11% of communications managers saw their bonuses grow while 27% watched them shrink. Nineteen percent of Internet architects reported bonus gains averaging nearly 52%, but 21% reported bonus cuts of nearly 60%. These findings illustrate that when it comes to pay the company you work for may be more important than the job you do.

CIO/vice president of IT	Chief technology officer	Chief security officer
Average salary: $122,950 Bonus: $28,328 Total: $151,278	Average salary: $117,797 Bonus: $24,290 Total: $142,087	Average salary: $90,267 Bonus: $10,711 Total: $100,978
A Sampling of Average Total Compensation By Industry
Business services: $133,263	Computer services/consulting: $147,033	Computer services/consulting: $139,000*
Computer services/consulting: $151,105	Finance/real estate/insurance: $134,000*	Energy: $101,000*
Education: $123,964	Education: $95,167*	Finance/real estate/insurance: $113,160*
Energy: $143,259*	Manufacturing (computer): $157,840*	Health care: $108,333*
Finance/real estate/insurance: $165,719	Telecommunications: $147,143*
Government (state/local): $106,373*
Health care: $152,025*
Manufacturing (noncomputer): $143,993
Retail: $187,500*
A Sampling of Average Total Compensation By Company Size (Ranked By Revenue)
Less than $100M: $123,058	Less than $100M: $131,186	Less than $100M: $87,523*
$100M to $999.9M: $158,639	$100M to $999.9M: $136,738*	$100M to $999.9M: $109,920*
$1B to $9.9B: $201,212	$1B to $9.9B: $182,412*	$1B to $9.9B: $106,500*
More than $10B: $232,812	$1B to $9.9B: $182,412*	More than $10B: $133,333*

Director of systems development	Director of IT/IS operations	Internet technology strategist
Average salary: $112,076 Bonus: $14,866 Total: $126,942	Average salary: $90,417 Bonus: $10,169 Total: $100,586	Average salary: $95,213 Bonus: $14,341 Total: $109,554
A Sampling of Average Total Compensation By Industry
Computer reseller: $133,501*	Business services/IT: $105,484	Computer services/consulting: $108,318
Computer services/consulting: $132,713	Computer services/consulting: $120,381	Finance/real estate/insurance: $111,171*
Finance/real estate/insurance: $132,756*	Education: $73,338	Manufacturing (computer): $125,467*
Health care: $106,146*	Government (state/local): $74,048	Telecommunications: $114,100*
Manufacturing (computer): $130,167*	Finance/real estate/insurance: $117,446	Education: $73,900*
	Health care: $91,991	Health care: $92,700*
	Manufacturing (noncomputer): $103,685
	Food/beverage: $121,775*
	Manufacturing (computer): $106,700*
	Biotechnology: $134,157
	Retail: $119,573*
A Sampling of Average Total Compensation By Company Size (Ranked By Revenue)
Less than $100M: $110,474	Less than $100M: $83,658	Less than $100M: $106,411
$100M to $999.9M: $118,337	$100M to $999.9M: $107,798	$100M to $999.9M: $106,606*
$1B to $9.9B: $142,669	$1B to $9.9B: $131,722	$1B to $9.9B: $115,193
More than $10B: $162,918*	$10B or more: $147,578	$10B or more: $113,704

Computer operations manager

**Database manager

Help desk / technical support manager

Average salary: $72,124

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