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Modest ICT salary growth: ACS survey

ACS staff, Information Age

17/08/2004 15:50:06

Although this still lags behind the 4-5 per cent increases being paid to professionals in other engineering, scientific and technical disciplines, it is up from the record low 3.1 per cent increase reported last year. Conditions remain tight for independent ICT contractors, though, with less than a third increasing their rates during the 12 months to May.

The ACS Remuneration Survey is conducted by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) and attracted responses from 1551 ACS members.

Salary increase above CPI, below AWE It recorded increases ranging from 3.1 per cent for public sector professionals up to 3.6 per cent for those in the education sector, with private sector workers enjoying a 3.4 per cent rise. The result is 1.4 per cent above CPI but remains well below the Average Weekly Earnings increase of 4.9 per cent recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

ACS President Edward Mandla said the survey findings fuelled speculation that the ICT sector had turned the corner after three difficult years and that demand was increasing for qualified professionals.

“While static or declining increases in salary have been recorded every year since 2000, this is the first trend upwards since 1998 and represents hope of a recovery for ICT professionals who’ve been hit hard by the downturn. This is also in keeping with the findings of the ACS Employment Survey, which found employment in the ICT rose by four percentage points during 2003,” he said.

Optimism higher The survey also found that ICT professionals were generally more optimistic about their prospects, with 43 per cent saying they were experiencing stronger or much stronger demand for their goods or services, up from just 28.4 per cent in 2003. Only 11.8 per cent reported weaker demand for their services, down from 23.6 per cent last year.

“ACS members who work for leading ICT vendors are constantly telling me that their sales pipelines are continuing to grow and that customers are revisiting ICT projects that had been placed on hold, so these results confirm what we’ve been hearing in the market. Not only are there more sales opportunities, but project sizes are much larger,” Mandla said.

Contractors still doing it tough Conditions remain relatively stagnant for independent contractors. The rates charged varied considerably and generally ranged from $60 to $120, depending on the nature of work undertaken.

During the year to May 2004, 19 per cent of contractors were forced to decrease their rates while 52 per cent held their rates steady. Only 29 per cent increased their rates during the year. The overall result was a slight increase in rates indicating some improvement in the ICT sector.

“One of the outcomes we saw last year was that employers were favouring full-time professional staff over hiring independent consultants, which raised the level of uncertainty for those working as contractors. However, the increased new project activity we’re seeing does bode well for independent professionals,” said Mr Mandla.

The survey also showed that demand remains high for programmers with skills in Cobol and TCP/IP, attracting higher salary packages than those working in Java, Unix or SQL.

Management and sales/marketing get most Positions in general management and sales and marketing continued to be the most lucrative based on the median value of total remuneration package comprising base salary, bonuses, superannuation and fringe benefits such as motor vehicles.

Job Function Median Total Package Job Function Median Total Package

General Management $145,000 Systems Management $84,654 Sales & Marketing $132,450 Research & Teaching $83,383 IT Management $116,881 LAN Manager $74,989 Research & Dev $109,389 Programmer/Analyst $72,715 Consulting $108,020 Analysis & Testing $71,940 Project Management $104,200 Teaching/Training only $70,705 Project Leader $95,822 Computer Support $65,124 Database Admin $91,056 Systems Management $84,654