InfoWorld 2004 Salary Survey Results

tverbeek writes "InfoWorld has released the results of their Salary Survey for 2004 [pdf], and in the intro they declare that there's less bad news and more optimism, as IT budgets and salaries in particular are starting to creep back up. So now we get to witness the curious phenomenon of Lake Anti-Wobegone, as all the techies we hear from complain that their salaries are still below 'average'."

Comments

Jobserve

[mirko]

A good European observatory is Jobserve where I have been able to consider the falling then re-growing number of job offer during the last 3 years.

Google Cache

[me98411]

Link to Google cache of the Salary Survey file.

Slashdotted already ...

[dennison_uy]

Straight from Google's cache

Make that Anti-(Lake Wobegon)

[flicken]

This is a reference to the mythical Lake Wobegone of Garisson Keillor, where "all the children are above average". In this case, all people think their salaries are *below* average, thus making it the opposite--or an Anti-(Lake Wobegone).

See this study on the Lake Wobegone effect (pdf).

Re:Lake Anti-Wobegone

[tgeerts]

Lake Wobegone is where everything is above average.

Garrison Keiller wasn't a math major

[TrentL]

If he was, he'd know that it's completely possible for most people at Lake Wobegone to be above (or below) average.

Consider an exam taken by 4 people. 3 people score a 10. 1 person scores a 2. That makes an average of 8 (10 + 10 + 10 + 2 = 32. 32/4 = 8). Most of the people scored above average.

This is why Mean and Median are useful concepts.

Re:put on your slashdotting helmet, gentlemen

[krails]

Seriously... especially when we have an HTML version of the survey HERE. =)

Kevin Railsback
IT Manager
InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.

Re:More power to you.

[Brummund]

The Global Rich List?

Re:Things *have* been good...

[gosand]

This January I basically presented myself as a needed member of the team, explained my salary adjustment request (using an Infoworld-like survey) and got my boss to back it up to management (not hard, because we treat each other well). There's methods to increase your chances of getting a good pay raise.

Congrats on your 20% increase. I worked my ass off this year too, and received an annual review of "exceeds expectations". You know what my raise was? The same as everyone else's: 0%. Even the fuckstick who takes 2 hour lunches, disappears for hours at a time during the day, and doesn't get his shit done at all, let alone on time. I am not sure if we are making the same amount, but we are at the same grade level.

This is for a very large company, where the CEO made $9 mil in salary ALONE last year, and whose total compensation was over $50 mil. Every salaried employee in the company gets no raise this year, and we don't have a bonus program. And we were told that we were "lucky to have jobs" and that "there are no other jobs out there". I have already started looking, and really hope that the market opens up a little so I can get the F out of here. While those things are technically true, it is not how you keep your employees happy. I don't need to hear that when the CEO almost made more in millions than I made in thousands. And since the company policy is that they cannot give any recommendations if used as a reference (they can only verify that I was employed here) then you can be sure that I am going to lay it on the line when I leave, and they aren't going to get one second more than 2 weeks notice. (if that) For some reason, the bad economy can be used as an excuse by employers to fuck the employees.