This year IT staff participants in our annual IT Salary Survey reported an average monthly salary of just over R16 000. But the average figure belies the fact that people with hugely different skills sets and experience work at the staff level in this industry. We therefore also segmented the data in terms of the lower quartile, median, upper quartile and 90th percentile in order to present a more realistic view. (See table for details and definition of terms.)
[CHART]Out of a sample of 3 512 permanently employed respondents, nearly 1 900 work at the staff level.
Software architects make the most money with a monthly median of R30 000 and the highest reported salary of R100 000 per month. They are closely followed by ERP consultants and systems architects, who reported a median of R28 750 and just over 26 000 respectively.
In contrast, at the bottom end of the scale are help desk specialists, call centre specialists, and technicians, with median monthly salaries in the R9 000 range.
While the upper end of the list re- flects high median salaries, disparities have emerged between minimum and maximum earnings in each category. For example, software architects reported monthly salaries that range from R24 750 in the lower quartile of the sample to a maximum of R100 000.
Similarly, a large gap exists between the minimum and maximum earnings within the systems architect field, where responses yielded a range of R16 000 to R60 000.
Susan Haiden, client development manager at Insource.ICT, explains why such anomalies are likely to occur between the highest and lowest paid within a certain field.
"Within the South African context, job title is often not relevant to income earned, primarily because, as no standard job description exists for each job title, companies apply titles arbitrarily." Thus, she says, a software architect, for instance, with many years` experience, ends up with the same job title as someone with less experience and responsibility.
"In reality, skill, experience gained and level of responsibility determine income - not the job title. In other words, what you do within the context of your job is of more importance in determining what you earn," she adds.
Commenting on the discrepancy between the highest and the lowest earners in the lower quartile range, Haiden says that such a wide gap has always existed and always will.
"The market has a preconceived idea of the value of an IT person`s contribution to the business - and this influences income earned," she states.
Haiden says that value is determined by concepts such as supply and demand, level of responsibility, multiplatform experience and strategic importance to the business.
Therefore, she says, where there is a scarcity of skills in a strategically important area that demands higher levels of responsibility people will earn more.
"Software architects are not as readily available as technicians in SA. They also generally have higher levels of responsibility, are given more decision making powers and are of strategic importance to the projects that they are assigned to. This ensures that they earn more than technicians."
Median monthly salaries between R18 000 and R20 000 a month were recorded by business intelligence consultants, telecoms specialists, financial software consultants and database developers. Here too the maximum and minimum salaries range from R10 000 to over R40 000.
Specialised knowledge
Looking beyond the job title, the survey asked participants to indicate their primary area of expertise. (Turn to page 3 on the centre-fold for details.)
[CHART]In the supply chain management space, the average monthly salary reported is R27 800, followed closely by IP telephony/ VOIP, where the average salary is R27 200, then risk management, with R25 400, and knowledge management, with R24 800.
Out of 49 niche areas surveyed, the bottom four - document management, desktop management, support and helpdesks, and call centre management - all fell below an average R10 000 a month.
Haiden comments that salary levels are determined by a number of factors. These include supply and demand - the availability of skills in a particular technology area; specialist skills - specialised knowledge commands a higher salary; decision-making ability - people expected to make decisions that influence the success of projects are paid better; and strategic importance - strategic projects have higher visibility in organisations and people who are critical to the success of these projects are paid higher salaries.
"The fact that supply chain management and IP telephony/VOIP are the two areas at the top end reflects the current strategic importance of these technologies - and the resulting demand for skills in these areas," she says.
"Call centre management falling at the bottom of the table indicates the value ascribed to this function by organisations. Call centres generally experience very high turnover rates - a result of their requirement for less-skilled workers, who are easily replaced. They are often the first areas
to be outsourced in an organisation."
Vendor-related skills
Finally, the survey studied the relation between salaries and various vendor-related IT platforms, and looked at 60 different categories. (Turn to page 4 on the centre-fold for details.)
According to this sample, EMC (enterprise storage) came out on top, with a monthly average salary of R35 000, followed by SAP NetWeaver on R32 100, and IBM NetSphere on R25 800. Other platforms that came in at above the R20 000 mark included SAS, Sun Solaris, Adabas, SAP R/3, Oracle Data Warehousing and BI, and MySAP.
Towards the bottom end of the scale are Microsoft Office (R13 800), Symantec (R13 600) and Apple OS (R13 600). The last two places are occupied by Novell Net- Warw with a monthly average of R12 300, and Unisys server hardware, on R12 200.
"Again, the presence of storage, ERP, specialist development and business intelligence tools at the top end of the platform graph confirms that companies will pay for specialist skills," says Haiden.
"Adabas is an interesting addition - but again confirms the supply and demand premise. While Adabas is an older technology, the fact that so many of these skills have cross-trained into other newer technologies has resulted in a situation where Adabas skills are now scarce. Those companies that still require people with Adabas experience are having to pay for the skill."
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