Cha-Ching! The First 2007 IT Salary Guide Arrives

Starting salaries for IT pros are expected to increase an average of 2.8 percent in 2007 over 2006, and more than 4 percent in high-demand areas, according to the 2007 IT Salary Guide from Robert Half Technology, to be released Oct. 24.

Larger increases in base compensation are expected in roles in higher demand such as software and Web development and data warehouse management.

"We see this as part of the Web-ification of the world. Theres a whole lot of development work going on there to making the world of computing even more seamless, and to do this, companies need developers," said Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology, a provider of IT professional services in Menlo Park, Calif.

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Salaries for software developers are expected to rise 5.1 percent to the range of $60,250 to $94,750 in 2007. Base compensation for both Web developers and data warehouse managers is expected to increase 4.2 percent in 2007, with annual ranges of $54,750 to $81,500 and $85,500 to $113,500, respectively.

At salary increases of 4.1 percent each over 2006, project managers are expected to earn average salaries of $72,750 to $106,250 and quality assurance analysts can expect compensation in the range of $52,250 to $74,500 annually.

Application architects are expected to see a 4 percent boost in their salaries as well, bringing their range to $80,000 to $112,750 annually.

Network security administrators are expected to jump 3.7 percent in income, up to the range of $69,750 to $98,500 annually, and IT auditors are expected to see a 3.1 percent improvement in their cash-flow, to the range of $69,250 to $97,000 annually.

"Business expansion and increasing investments in technology continue to drive demand for highly skilled IT professionals. To attract top candidates, many companies are raising compensation levels for new hires to ensure their salaries remain competitive with their local markets," said Lee.

The CIOs two cents

In a series of CIO polls peppered throughout the salary guide, CIOs express concerns of increasing workloads, providing training in hopes to retain workers and shortages of workers skilled in Windows administration.

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Thirty-four percent of responding CIOs said their primary IT staffing concern was managing increasing workloads, 27 percent said retaining staff and 24 percent said motivating staff.

When asked what steps, if any, their firms were taking to retain key IT talent, 63 percent of CIOs responded that were providing training or professional development. Forty-seven percent said they offered flexible work schedules and 41 percent said they were increasing base compensation.

The most coveted IT skills by CIOs were Windows administration, Server 2000/2003 (79 percent), network administration, Cisco, Nortel and Novell (76 percent), database management, Oracle, SQL server, DB2 (69 percent) and wireless network management (57 percent).

Finally, 41 percent of CIOs said that the importance of fundamental business knowledge in IT candidates would only increase over the next five years, while 54 percent felt it would stay the same.

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