Computerworld's 30th annual IT Salary Survey was administered via the Internet. Both Computerworld digital magazine subscribers and visitors to Computerworld.com were included in the survey.
Starting on Aug. 25, 2015, the following methods were used to invite participants to take the survey:
- Visitors to Computerworld.com were presented with a pop-up box inviting them to participate in the survey (with a frequency cap of once per user). Visitors were given the option of bypassing the survey to get to their intended destinations.
- Links to the survey were included in various Computerworld email newsletters, the Web and on social media sites.
- Computerworld digital magazine subscribers employed in IT job functions were sent an email message inviting them to participate in the survey. Sample members could either click on the address to gain access to the questionnaire or enter the address using a Web browser. A survey could not be submitted more than once for each respondent.
Cookies were used to ensure that there was no duplication of responses between or within the various sample groups. In addition, duplicate responses from the same email address were removed.
The survey ended Nov. 19, 2015. A total of 3,878 individuals responded to the survey. Of those respondents, 3,301 were employed full time or part time and were eligible to complete the entire survey. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error for this sample size is 1.6 percentage points.
Demographics
Eighty-three percent of the respondents were men, 99% were employed full time, and 46% reported a bachelor's degree as their highest level of education. Respondents had an average of 18 years in IT, and their average age was 47.
Fifty-four percent indicated that they had some level of IT certification.
Eighty-three percent of our respondents reported that they held the same job title as the previous year. Forty-three percent indicated that they were in management, and 57% said they held staff or technical positions.
The organizations the respondents worked for employed an average total of 8,860 employees each and had an average of 898 IT staffers each. The average 2015 revenue of respondents' employers was $3.1 billion. Forty-seven percent of the respondents worked for private companies, while 24% worked for public companies, 10% work in government, 10% at nonprofits and 9% in education.
The best-represented industry in the sample was IT services, with 13% of the respondents saying they worked in that field. Some 27% of respondents reported living in the North Central region of the U.S., 19% said they live in the Southeast, and 17% reported living in the Northeast, making those geographic areas the best represented.