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2018 IT Salary Report
2018 IT Salary Report
2018 IT Salary Report
IT Salaries:
Myths and Truths
Our 2018 Salary Survey shows that median IT salaries climbed $5,000
since last year, and a majority of IT professionals are satisfied with
their jobs. But the outlook isn’t as rosy for women in tech.
IT Salaries: Myths and Truths
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Table of Contents
TABLE of CONTENTS
3 About the Author 6 Figure 1: IT Total Compensation 21 Figure 20: Learning New Skills
4 Research Synopsis 7 Figure 2: IT Total Compensation by Title 22 Figure 21: Skills for Advancement
5 Executive Summary 8 Figure 3: Overall Satisfaction 23 Figure 22: Paying for Training
6 Not Everything You Know about Salaries 8 Figure 4: Gender Pay Gap 23 Figure 23: Amount Spent on Training
Is True 9 Figure 5: Impact of Outsourcing on Career 24 Figure 24: Security of Career Path in IT
6 What Conventional Wisdom Gets Right 10 Figure 6: What Matters Most 24 Figure 25: Job Security
8 What Conventional Wisdom Gets Wrong 11 Figure 7: Time Spent 25 Figure 26: Intellectual Challenge
10 Management vs. Staff 12 Figure 8: Promising Career Path 25 Figure 27: Satisfaction with Total
11 Trends to Watch 13 Figure 9: Gender Compensation
13 Appendix 14 Figure 10: Noncash Benefits 26 Figure 28: Training Valued
15 Figure 11: IT Outsourcing 27 Figure 29: Changes in Pay, Benefits, or Job
15 Figure 12: Impact of Outsourcing on 28 Figure 30: Accepting a Lesser Title
IT Professionals 29 Figure 31: Experience Outside IT
16 Figure 13: Technologies Threatening Jobs 29 Figure 32: Non-IT Positions Held Previously
17 Figure 14: Looking for a Different Job 30 Figure 33: Education
17 Figure 15: Years in IT and Years at 30 Figure 34: Age
Company 31 Figure 35: Job Title
17 Figure 16: Number of Employers 32 Figure 36: Company Size
18 Figure 17: Reasons for Job Search 33 Figure 37: Company Revenue
19 Figure 18: Critical Business and Technical 34 Figure 38: Industry
Skills
20 Figure 19: Technologies Purchased
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AUTHOR
Cynthia Harvey
Interop Reports
Cynthia Harvey is an award-winning writer and editor who has been covering the technology industry for more than 15 years.
She frequently writes about artificial intelligence, cloud computing, open source software, the Internet of Things, DevOps, and
other topics of interest to enterprise IT. She is based in the Detroit area, and you can find her on Twitter as @ckharvey.
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RESEARCH SYNOPSIS
ABOUT US Survey Name: Interop and InformationWeek 2018 Salary Survey
Interop
Interop is the industry’s most Survey Date: July 2018
trusted independent confer-
ence focused on Full Stack
Region: United States
IT education for technology
leaders. The event continues
the 30 years Interop has ded- Respondent Base: 1,800 information technology (IT) professionals employed in the U.S. The margin of error for the total
icated to providing IT profes- respondent base (N=1,800) is +/-2.3 percentage points.
sionals with a trusted environ-
ment to learn, collaborate, Methodology: Interop and InformationWeek surveyed technology professionals employed in the United States with questions
and uncover new strategies related to salaries, benefits, and other career issues. The survey was conducted online, and respondents were recruited via an
and solutions they need to
email invitation containing an embedded link to the survey. The email invitation was sent to a select group of UBM’s audience.
lead their businesses through
Half of the respondents worked in management roles, and half held staff positions. Forty-five percent were from enterprises with
constant change and dis-
ruption. Interop offers both more than 1,000 employees, and they represented a wide range of industries. UBM was responsible for all programming and data
breadth and depth of con- analysis. These procedures were carried out in strict accordance with standard market research practices.
tent to a broad IT audience
across core areas: Cloud,
Data & Analytics, DevOps,
Government, Infrastructure,
Leadership & Professional
Development, and Secu-
rity. For more information,
visit interop.com.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In general, IT workers are very happy with their chosen careers, and it’s little wonder. The 2018 Interop and InformationWeek
Salary Survey revealed that pay for tech staff is high and rising, and most respondents reported good benefits and challenging
work. In many cases, the latest survey results confirmed the conventional wisdom about what it’s like to work in IT, although it
also offered some significant surprises. It also revealed that the gender gap continues to be a problem for the occupation. In
addition, the survey highlighted some important differences between the experiences of managers and staffers, as well as some
noteworthy trends that will shape the future of IT.
• Median salaries increased by $5,000 for both managers and staff, although staff pay still trails the all-time high set in 2014.
• 84% of U.S. technology workers are male, and they earn about $20,000 more than their female colleagues.
• More than half of IT professionals have employer health insurance plans and 401(k) match plans; other types of benefits are
less common.
• 59% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs; only 17% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
• More than half of tech workers received company-paid training last year.
• Managers are looking for a challenge; staffers want solid pay and benefits.
• Only 9% of respondents believe their jobs are insecure.
• 66% of respondents say outsourcing has not impacted their careers, but 67% listed outsourcing as a threat to their jobs.
• 47% of respondents are planning to beef up their security skills this year.
• 71% of respondents have worked for only one or two employers.
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Not Everything You Know Figure 1
Applications management
Trends to Watch
20% 23% 18%
Cloud services, networking, and training
Documenting or reporting for compliance/governance
are on the shopping list. No one who has
20% 21% 19%
been involved in enterprise IT in recent
Researching new capabilities and screening prospective vendors and technologies
years will be surprised to learn that 62%
19% 15% 23%
of respondents said that their companies
Personnel management
would be investing in cloud services during
15% 3% 26%
the next two years, making cloud services
Training users or trainers within departments and business units
the technology companies are most likely
14% 16% 12%
to purchase. In fact, given that other surveys
Identifying new business streams/products to develop
have found that more than 90% of compa-
7% 5% 8%
nies are in the cloud, it’s somewhat surprising
Other
that this number wasn’t even higher. Other
6% 9% 3%
areas where a majority of respondents
Note: Maximum of three responses allowed
Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of 1,800 IT professionals
interop.com September 2018 11
IT Salaries: Myths and Truths
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Figure 8 rity architecture (42%), cloud applications selves, IT workers tend to be frugal. A
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(42%), and Internet/WAN (40%). majority (53%) spent less than $500 on
Promising Career Path Everyone wants to learn about IT training that they paid for themselves.
Do you believe that a career path
in IT and the potential for salary security. Security is another hot trend. The future looks bright. Overall, IT
advancement are as promising today When asked which skills they were plan- workers appear to be very optimistic about
as they were five years ago? ning to learn in the coming year, 47% of their chosen occupation. A majority (59%)
all respondents (45% of staffers and 48% said tech is as promising a career path
As promising today
of managers) put IT security at the top of today as it was five years ago (Figure 8).
Not as promising
12% the list. In addition, respondents selected
Unsure And a full 91% said that IT careers are at
IT security as the skill that would give their
least as secure as other types of work, if
careers the biggest boost.
29%
not more so. Only 9% said they felt inse-
Most tech workers attend company-
59% cure in their jobs. And 90% said their work
paid training. Speaking of learning, a
was intellectually challenging.
majority of respondents (52%) said that they
have attended company-paid training in Given the other findings of the salary
Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of the past 12 months. Less than a third (29%) survey, respondents seem to have plenty
1,800 IT professionals
said that they had received no training at of reasons for that optimism. Salaries are
all in the past year, indicating that most high and climbing, and IT workers are
expected their companies to spend money
IT professionals are actively involved in happy with their positions and their pay.
included networking (57%) and training Employers still have work to do when it
keeping their knowledge and skills up to
(53%). Significant minorities are also plan- date. comes to gender equality, but in general,
ning to invest in virtualization (45%), secu- However, when they foot the bill them- IT professionals seem to love their jobs.
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APPENDIX
Figure 9
Gender
What is your gender?
Male Female Gender nonconforming
1% 1% 1%
Figure 10
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Noncash Benefits
Please specify the type(s) of noncash and indirect cash
rewards you expect to receive in the next 12 months.
Health insurance
84%
401(k) match
70%
Company-paid smartphone
44%
Other further education/training
37%
Certification reimbursement
27%
Tuition reimbursement
26%
Stock options
13%
Health club membership
12%
Stock purchase plan
11%
Company-paid home Internet access
8%
Company-paid phone/fax/cable modem/DSL lines
8%
Company car or car allowance
6%
Sabbatical/extended vacation
5%
Day care or day care subsidy
2%
Other
6%
Figure 11
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IT Outsourcing
Is your organization outsourcing some of its IT jobs?
Yes, outsourced to a company or companies in the US
22%
Yes, outsourced to a company or companies offshore
10%
Yes, outsourced to a combination of companies both in the US and offshore
16%
No
47%
Don’t know
5%
Figure 12
Figure 13
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Figure 14 Figure 15
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Figure 16
Figure 17
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Figure 18
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Staff
Integrating enterprise applications 32% 27% 39%
Integrating, normalizing or
Management
30% 27% 33%
cleansing data
Other 3% 4% 2%
Figure 19
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Technologies Purchased
What technologies or solutions has your organization purchased
in the last year or plan to purchase in the next year or two?
Cloud services
62%
Networking
57%
IT training/education
53%
Virtualization
45%
Security architecture
42%
Cloud applications
42%
Internet/WAN
40%
Mobility and wireless
39%
Data protection
39%
Enterprise applications
34%
Databases platforms/tools
33%
Application development
32%
Data analytics
31%
Consulting/System integration
31%
Threat intelligence
28%
IT management
25%
Application/platform security
24%
Cloud management
23%
Private/hybrid cloud
21%
Collaboration/Unified communications
20%
Application management
18%
DevOps
18%
Internet of Things
14%
Software-defined infrastructure
14%
Converged/hyperconverged infrastructure
12%
Containers
11%
interop.com Note: Multiple responses allowed / Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of 1,800 IT professionalss September 2018 20
IT Salaries: Myths and Truths
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Figure 20
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Figure 21
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Figure 22
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Figure 23
13% 19%
Less than $100
$100 and $499 13%
Figure 24
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50%
Figure 25
Job Security
How would you rate your
present job security?
I feel very 9%
secure
Figure 26 Figure 27
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Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of 1,800 IT professionals
1,800 IT professionals
Figure 28
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Training Valued
What type of training would you find most
valuable to you in developing your career?
Technology-specific training
65%
Certification courses
43%
Project management training
15%
People management skills training
14%
Business skills training
11%
Statistics or analytics training or courses
10%
Communication skills training
9%
MBA
8%
College courses
7%
Other
2%
Note: Maximum of two responses allowed
Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of 1,800 IT professionals
Figure 29
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Figure 30
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Figure 31 Figure 32
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Figure 33
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Education
What is your highest level of education?
PhD
2%
Master’s degree/MBA
28%
Bachelor’s degree
43%
Associate’s degree
9%
Tech/IT trade school
4%
Some college
12%
High school graduate
2%
Data: InformationWeek 2018 US IT Salary Survey of 1,800 IT professionals
Figure 34
Age
What is your age?
Under 25
1%
25 to 34
9%
35 to 44
22%
45 to 54
34%
55 to 64
29%
65 or older
5%
Figure 35
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Job Title
Which of the following best describes your job title?
Director/manager, IT, networking or infrastructure
24%
IT staff
13%
CIO/CTO or other IT executive
9%
Program manager/project manager
7%
Consultant (IT)
6%
IT supervisor
5%
Systems analyst
5%
Vice president, IT
4%
Software/web developer
4%
Architect
4%
Engineer/QA
3%
CSO (chief security officer)/security management
3%
Programmer/analyst
3%
Help desk
2%
Telecommunications specialist
1%
Other
8%
Figure 36
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Company Size
How many total employees does your company have?
Fewer than 25
8%
25 to 50
6%
51 to 100
8%
101 to 500
23%
501 to 1,000
10%
1,001 to 5,000
16%
5,001 to 10,000
6%
10,001 to 20,000
7%
More than 20,000
18%
Figure 37
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Company Revenue
Which of the following ranges best describes the annual revenue of your company?
Under $1 million
7%
$1 million to $10 million
20%
$10,000,001 to $50 million
17%
$51 million to $100 million
9%
$101 million to $250 million
8%
$251 million to $350 million
3%
$351 million to $500 million
3%
$501 million to $750 million
4%
$751 million to $1 billion
4%
$1.01 billion to $5 billion
11%
$5.01 billion to $10 billion
5%
More than $10 billion
9%
Figure 38
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Industry
Which of the following best describes the industry in which you work?
Government
11%
Healthcare
9%
Consulting and business services
9%
Higher education
9%
Financial services/banking/securities and investments
8%
IT vendor
8%
Manufacturing/industrial (non-computer)
8%
Education (K-12)
4%
Nonprofit
3%
Telecommunications/ISPs
3%
Insurance
3%
Construction/engineering
2%
Retail/e-commerce
2%
Media/entertainment
2%
Logistics/transportation
2%
Electronics
2%
Other
15%