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Techie Pay Approaches All-time High
Stony Stevenson sent in this ITNews story which opens, "Techies were paid nearly record-high hourly wages in the third quarter, according to a new report released Thursday by staffing firm Yoh. Based on data compiled from 75 Yoh field offices and 5,000 technology professionals contracted in short and long-term projects, pay increased an average of more than 5.5 percent for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to the same period last year."
McDonald's workers were also paid more than any other time in history. If you are going to a study like this without adjusting for ever-present inflation, then of course you will constantly see new records.
> Compared to the same months in 2006, hourly wages for techies in 2007 rose 6 percent in July, 4.64 percent in August, and 5.79 percent in September.
Compared to the value of the US dollar against every major currency in 2006, hourly wages for US-based techies are still down 5-10% year over year.
pay increased an average of more than 5.5 percent for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to the same period last year.
Yeah, but it's in American Dollars, so the amount actually decreased.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Oil and most other necessities are also at record highs.
This is a link to a news source in Australia. They then link to informationweek.com, who is in the US. But I've never heard of the company who runs the survey they are talking about, so I have no way to know who was surveyed about their wages.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Pay there is DROPPING about 5% a year-both in actual pay and in the amount of responsibility for the same pay. As (clueless) broadcasting groups buy more stations, they expect the existing tech. staff to assume the burden of the extra work-with no more pay or assistance. The pay used to work out to about $15K per station. Then it dropped to 12K. Now it's at about $9K, which means that the average radio broadcast engineer makes about $60K for servicing 7 stations. This many stations means that all he's doing is running around putting out fires all the time.
I dunno, I've thought about it a million times, and when it comes down to it our only real skills are memorization, problem domain reduction, patience, discipline, and critical thought ... which boils fairly well down to critical thought. Once I come to that conclusion, I can't help but wonder if I even want to be so rare.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
The other problem with this comparison is that this is only looking at contractor pay, not full-time employee salaries. As full disclosure, I work for a firm that provides IT Staffing as one of its services. Yes, certain in-demand skill sets are getting big bucks. Where I work locally, there have been so many positions posted for various C programmers that we simply can't find anymore, and the ones who will move for a short term or mid-term project are asking and, by and large, getting ridiculous salaries.
But when we do full-time placements, I'm not seeing a big increase. Not only that, but the majority of positions we filled this year were full-time placements.
So I think saying they are at an all-time high needs to be qualified: for certain contractors, which are the jobs where companies like Yoh are most likely to be placing candidates.
Bill
People forget that each H1-B visa lasts for basically 7 years. And that the limits were wildly expanded during the dot-com boom. Starting in 2000, they went from 65,000 to 130,000. And this continued well after the dot-com bust had happened. It was only in 2004 that the limits went back down to 65,000.
Since this limit wasn't expanded this year (yet), that means lots of H1-Bs are starting to go home. This is why all of the visas that were issued in April were gobbled up in a single day. And none of this is something that you'll see in the mainstream press.
So a lot of H1-B's are going home this year. The local labor market WILL get tighter, and wages WILL rise.
If the limits aren't expanded this year, it's unlikely they'll be expanded next year either, as that's a major election year.
If Hillary Clinton is elected though (which seems likely), you can expect them to again be doubled, as she's been aggressively promoting their expansion, even on her current website.
So, expect wages to go up, while the H1-B's go home. And enjoy it while it lasts, as it won't last forever.
It's just more proof that H1-B's are all about cheap labor and not about a lack of talent.
If you look at "techie wages" adjusted for the increased price of real estate in places like Silicon Valley, and the lessening of the security of those wages, especially approaching middle age, then you see the real reason why mere propaganda isn't going to draw young people into tech fields ever again.
Seastead this.
That translated to an average hourly tech worker wage of US$31.80
What is that in CAD? a loonie or so an hour?
[alk]
Too bad inflation is at 18%, as measured by the increase in the money supply. 10-15% measured by price increases, if you include the stuff the FED likes to leave out, you know, like housing, fuel, college education, health care, unimportant stuff like that which the average techie doesn't spend much of his income on.
XE says the US dollar is worth about 96.6 Canadian cents.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I'm a manager at a tech outfit, a fairly large one.
What we are looking for are high end techies, and the wage inflation is due to our desperation to get high end techies - programmers and network admins the like.
A newb trying to get into this field has absolutely NO CHANCE.
Go look at the job ads and see what they're looking for as far as experience is concerned. You can't even meet those requirements with internships.
The wages are rising because America's pool of experienced techies is drying up, and fast. There are few to no new tech 'masters' rising in America; they're all coming from Asia, because that is where all the newb jobs are.
Those H-1 visas are coming here to compete with rock bottom wages, too.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
If you're having that much difficulty staffing your positions, maybe you need to rethink the requirements. You don't need an all-star team to run a tech shop, you really just need one star and a gaggle of willing juniors.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Bingo - How do you think that people get experience? The WoW fairy?
Eventually wages will rise to the point that american businesses realize something they should of been thinking about years ago - You need people of all skill levels. Apprentices are necessary.
Heck, I was shocked to see that the USAF is finally acknowledging that - they would ramp up tech school training, give huge bonuses to keep people in(and get them in), then proceed to force people out when they went over their requirements. Result: Fields were unbalanced, with either too many higher ups or too many juniors. Now they're finally accepting that while things might be a little more 'unbalanced' in the short term, plotting further into the future is a good thing. Because then they can adjust course with a tap instead of a sledge.
Businesses need to realize this as well - while you might loose 80% of your apprentices to other jobs, you should keep at least some of them. Provide the right benefits and treat them right, and you might keep over half of those you want - making the program worth it as you collect talent from the beginning.
I don't read AC A human right
The actual data indicates that during 2001-2006 tech salaries grew at 1-2% (which is less than inflation), and during 2006-2007 they grew at at 5% (which is more than inflation).
An obvious hypothesis is that the techie market was in disarray following the dotcom meltdown, during which techies lost real (inflation-adjusted) income. But now the market has recovered, and techies are experiencing wage gains faster than inflation because of cyclic recovery and pent-up demand.
Note that techie salaries are still below their Y2001 levels in inflation-adjusted terms. But then again, techie salaries were probably abnormally high during that period.
None of this is really that surprising.
I fail to see how people can miss it either, fuel, home heating, electricity rates, medical expenses and insurance, etc, all up WAY more than 4,5 or 6 percent over the past year most places. Food in particular people should be prepped for some serious sticker shock at the grocery store and at restaurants after the conclusion of this fall's grains harvest, the US does *not* stockpile grain like it used to to keep prices up. We used to have years worth of reserve, now we have at best a few weeks tops. Weeks. We have no practical backup food supply now, and what is there will be driven by cutthroat mercenary commodities brokers. You will be paying closer to what food really costs "real soon now". The US has had defacto subsidized food for *generations*. Biofuel demand is kicking in, it isn't going away, and the era of cheap food is now officially over, and you won't ever see it again. Never. Fixating on just a few cheaper electronic gadgets and prices is not the whole economy, or even the bulk of where people spend their money. And just wait until the loony tunes end times Armageddon Israel firsters hit Iran, hoo boy howdy you are going to see some price increases once the straits of hormuz are full of flaming tankers and half the middle east has production facilities on fire. Sky is the limit then on prices, as oil goes, so goes the world economy, and we will be seeing between 100 and 200 a barrel prices rippling through the economy in a very short time frame. There is very little "spare" production capacity to make up for the oily triangle flows globally, most places are already maxed out and it takes a long time to get new rigs in place. Even if the middle east is not the US primary source for oil, what oil we do get is still based on global prices, and them boys will get what they ask for it once 50% is taken off the market within a few days. And it's coming. This is going to be an economic tsunami, and those that can read this security ocean's signs will take precautions in advance, because waiting for the surge to hit is not the time to head for higher and safer ground.
to a service economy in the 80's (and now import everything).
-and then all those jobs were outsourced in the 90's.
and if you don't think we're poorer - don't take my word for it - when you index mean salary against inflation
(and this is without !energy! & !food!) - you see a decrease in wage rate. And that my friend, is an economic *fact*.
and incidentally a 5.5% raise, means 5.5% of *fiat* money. it means I have 5.5% more paper in my pocket - how much
paper is out in the market (or in this case ledger entries) {which have *nothing* to do with import/export), is the
real question -- and I'ld be willing to bet that more effective money has been introduced in the market through
shoddy loans, then that 5.5% increase pay indicates should exist.
Lastly, it was raised, 5.5% since what? 2006? come on now. compare it 2000 or 99 and then I might be impressed.
And give me a total number of people employed so I can judge relative wealth (e.g. area underneath the histogram)
Just last week they released a study that indicates that the "poor" in the US today have a higher standard of living then the "poor" in the US in the early '70s. By way of anecdotal evidence, I grew up the youngest in a large family. Today, I have a good friend who has a large family. My friend's career track resembles that of my father, his wife's career resembles that of my mother. His family is significantly better off than my family was when I was growing up.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison