Top IT execs suffer salary and benefit cuts

Check here to see if you're underpaid

By Robert Blincoe, 11th June 2001

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

Top IT bosses can now be bought for lower salaries and smaller benefit packages than they could six months ago.

This is the first time this has happened since 1985 according to analysts Janco Associates, which has just published its mid-year IT salary survey.

The benchmark salary for a CIO in a large corporate was $434,416 six months back. It's now plummeted 36.74 per cent to $317,699. The benchmark salary is what top dogs earn, because the mean salary for CIOs in big company's, including bonuses and benefits, is a meagre $166,566.

Janco expects worse to come. "A factor not fully reflected in the study is the energy crisis in California. It is having a severe impact on the Bay Area as more companies are announcing closures and 'reductions in force' and hiring freezes. This should be reflected completely in the year-end study due in January."

It's not all doom and gloom though. The mean salary for data comms managers over the last six months is $66,456, and the benchmark for high flyers has leaped 13 per cent to $85,701 from $74,489. Data security managers are enjoying a mean salary of $51,666. Those at the top of their profession are getting $69,681, a rise of 14.3 per cent on the $59,739 benchmark of six months ago.

Over the past six months, the mean salary level for all IT positions has been pushed to $70,318 in large enterprises and to $65,792 in medium-sized organisations.

If you want to find out if you're over or underpaid see Janco's press release here. ®