IT Pro Salaries: What You Can Earn (And Why It’s Still Low)

A temporary boost in business confidence saw a brief rise in some IT pro salaries in the latest Peoplebank quarterly survey, but that hasn’t compensated for an ongoing surfeit of skilled people, meaning salaries in many areas are flat. Here’s what is currently being paid, plus the specialisations in highest demand in each state.

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The announcement of Peoplebank’s latest quarterly ICT Salary Survey results leads with a slight (and temporary) boost in hiring in some areas following the federal election, but to our eyes the more significant detail is in the long-term trends. Peoplebank CEO Peter Acheson pointed out that in many specialities, salaries are relatively low. “Employers currently have the luxury of being able to appoint highly skilled candidates at moderate remuneration rates,” he said.

In the table below, we’ve listed the typical annual base salaries paid for selected permanent roles in six capital cities as of October 2012. A junior position requires less than three years of experience; intermediate is three to five years; senior is longer than that.

As ever, roles actively managed by a recruiter are likely to attract higher salaries than if you’re applying directly to a company, so bear that in mind. A gap indicates there weren’t queries in that field for that city.

Role Sydney Melbourne ACT Adelaide Perth Brisbane Junior .NET Developer $70,000 $55,000 $65,000 $50,000 $65,000 $54,500 Junior Server Engineer $75,000 $70,000 $65,000 – $70,000 – Junior Web Designer $55,000 $60,000 $50,000 $55,000 – $54,500 Junior Oracle DBA $80,000 $80,000 $70,000 $70,000 $65,000 $59,000 Int. Help Desk Manager $90,000 $80,000 $85,000 $95,000 $75,000 $81,500 Senior Security Engineer $130,000 $130,000 $130,000 $120,000 $110,000 – Senior Web Master $100,000 $100,000 $90,000 $100,000 – $86,000 Senior Business Analyst $130,000 $130,000 $115,000 $130,000 $130,000 $104,500 Senior IT Manager $180,000 $150,000 $120,000 $150,000 $170,000 $104,500 Senior CIO/IT Director $350,000 $300,000 $205,000 $250,000 $250,000 $180,500

According to Peoplebank, these are the areas with strongest demand in each state. Business analysts appear to be the only area consistently sought across much of the country:

NSW: Business analysts, Ruby on Rails

Victoria: Cloud, security, solutions architects

ACT: Project management

Queensland: No standout areas

SA: Business analysts, programming

WA: Business analysts, SharePoint

Peoplebank