IT Management: Six IT Skills With Rising Pay, and Four Certifications Paying Less

How much are your IT skills worth? Well, it depends on your particular area of specialization. According to research firm Foote Partners' IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index, updated for the first quarter of 2011, pay premiums for certain certifications have hit their lowest point in years—even as certain noncertified skills have seen a significant uptick in pay.??í "Our survey is showing the lowest average pay for an IT certification since our firm began formally surveying and publishing skills pay benchmarks back in 1999," David Foote, Foote Partners' co-founder and CEO, wrote in an introduction to the report. "But we're also at the highest average premium pay for a noncertified skill since September 2001, so this is the largest gap in pay for skills and certifications in 10 years." During the quarter, average premium pay for 252 noncertified skills increased 1.4 percent in value. Meanwhile, pay for 231 individual IT certifications declined some 1.9 percent. "The fact is that employers still think highly enough of the 231 certifications we do survey to be willing to pay a cash premium to workers who have earned them," Foote wrote. At the same time, though, "what I think we're seeing is that there are hundreds of skills that may not have certifications that are being valued more highly by employers."