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Around the same time that I’d read Laton McCartney’ erudite article calling for CIOs to be compensated at similar levels as their C-level peers, I’d also come across a SearchCIO.com story on CIO salary expectations for 2010. Both stories got me thinking not only about compensation for CIOs but for IT professionals in general.
According to a recent survey of 949 IT executives conducted by SearchCIO, half of IT executives expect to receive pay increases this year, compared with 38% in 2009. The survey respondents expect to see raises averaging 4.8%, with CIOs in IT services (8.8%), government (5.9%) and legal/insurance/real estate (5.9%) representing the industries where IT executive pay is expected to see the biggest gains. IT leaders in education (3.8%), nonprofits (3.6%) and computer-related retail/wholesale/distribution firms expect to see the smallest increases by industry.
I’m all for CIOs receiving compensation bumps, especially if they and their teams have helped their organizations achieve measurable improvements by delivering on successful IT/business projects. Similarly, they should also be compensated for slashing costs through virtualization and other efficiency efforts.
If IT leaders were able to somehow squeeze additional costs out of their already emaciated IT budgets in 2009, more power to them. In fact, I’d even argue that there should be incentive bonuses for CIOs who successfully meet cost-cutting goals, so long as those efforts don’t come at the cost of IT layoffs or salary cuts for IT personnel.
But first, a word of caution for CIOs: Don’t forget about who got you there.
According to Computerworld’s 2009 Salary Survey, wages for IT professionals were up a scant 0.4% last year. Meanwhile, bonuses dropped 10.8% on average for the 5,861 respondents.
I’ve worked on Computerworld’s Salary Survey team for the past several years. During that time, I’ve spoken with dozens of IT workers from a range of disciplines, industries and regions who complained about flat-to-marginal pay raises they’ve had to endure over the past few years which haven’t kept pace with cost-of-living increases. Meanwhile, many IT staffers say they’ve been forced to pick up additional responsibilities after colleagues have been fired or left voluntarily and their positions weren’t filled.
Despite all this, many IT professionals say they hold out hope that once the economy improves, business conditions for their organizations will pick up and they’ll see an uptick in compensation.
IT workers have had to shoulder a lot more work and longer hours for several years running without a lot more in pay. If the economy picks up in 2010, I would hope to see both CIOs and their staffs justly rewarded for their efforts.
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