Gender gap
The gender gap remains one of the constants in a decade of doing this survey. However, in this sample, female respondents reported a median salary 26 percent higher than the previous year, compared to male respondents, whose median is up
20 percent.

Education pays off
Reported salaries reflect a logical progression when it comes to education, experience and seniority of position. Annual median packages of those with matric, diplomas and certificates are clustered around the 300k mark. Those with degrees earn significantly more – from 430k (Honours) to 630k (Masters) and 730k (Phd).

C-level earnings
Not surprisingly, chief security officers, CIOs and CTOs top the list of highest earners. CEOs, however,reported significantly less –an anomaly that can be explained by the nature of this sample.“Respondents are CEOs of IT companies, while CIOs work for much larger organisations in other sectors, where the CEO is probably getting R2 million a year,” explains McGorian, technology executive at 21st Century Pay Solutions.

Overall, the gap between small and large companies has narrowed. “Whether you are a company of ten or 10 000, if you want a specialist, you are going to pay what the market pays,” notes McGorian. their jobs.” This is evident in the survey, which splits the sample into senior and operational managers on the one hand, and IT specialists and IT staff on the other.

An IT specialist, such as enterprise architect, is hired for the specialist skill, without necessarily having any staff reporting directly to him or her. At executive level, the median salary is R59 000, followed by R35 000 for operational managers, R33 000 for IT specialists and R25 00 for general IT staff.

Unequal pay
Morag Phillips, executive director at 21st Century Pay Solutions says that over the past 18 months, many companies affected by the economic crunch have applied a salary freeze. For those who were not negatively affected, second group, salary increases have been between eight and nine percent. “We expect that this will drop even further to between 6.75 and 7.25 percent by the end of 2010,” notes Phillips.