Average Salary?

[gbaughma]

OK, I've said for years that I'm underpaid... but just out of curiosity (since we're all semi-anonymous here by handle)... how about a list of job duties and approximate annual salary?

My job duties include:
Maintaining all PC's, thin clients and printers (about 100 total), both at this location and one that's a 5 1/2 hour drive.

Maintain user accounts (Active Directory)
Local system administration
Coordination with main Corporate HQ
Tape Backups (Daily and Monthly)
Internal Web Development (ASP/JavaScript)
Database Development
Inventory maintenance
Research and development (new technology and solutions)
Photo ID Cards
"Electronics" duties as needed; electronic doors, magnetic locks, etc.
Camera installation and maintenance
"Other Duties", including graphics arts, photography of events, printing of the pictures, etc.

$44K USD



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[EBGreen]

This has been brought up in several threads before. There are several sites that will provide this information for you. I think one of them is salary.com.

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[MasterRacker]

I'd agree that you have to do the multiple salary survey analysis thing. General job duties are one thing, how deeply you're exprected to have expertise is another along with the size of the user base and server farm you're directly supporting, etc. I've gone through the same argument myself and it did help to present a lot of research.

Also, pay is very regional. For example, if you were in Minneapolis, MN I'd say you're underpaid, however if you were in Minneapolis, KS you'd probably be doing pretty well.

No two situations are identical, so this is a very hard thing to quantify.

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[gbaughma]

For example, if you were in Minneapolis, MN I'd say you're underpaid...

See, now there's the thing. I'm not in MPLS, but I am in Minnesota. NORTHERN minnesota.

And people tell me all the time "Oh, it's cheaper to live up there, that's why salaries are less."

Except I post this counter-argument:

#1: There are less qualified IT people up here.
#2: My taxes might be lower, but when it's 40 below 0, and my utility bill is $600 a month in the winter, it kind of washes out.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[MasterRacker]

Any time you're outside a metro area, that's the argument you'll get. The problem is that all pay scales tend to be relative. In general, it's not just IT but all jobs will pay less in the smaller towns. Pretty much just a fact of life.

(I'm a southern Minnesotan - Go Vikes!)

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[kHz]

Are you happy the Vikings took the Iowa Hawkeye linebacker for their first round draft pick?

As for the subject...

pay is regional. Rural has always been less pay and always will be less pay. Also, the job responsibilities factor greatly into pay. A Unix admin with 3000 servers should make more than a Unix admin with 20 servers. Plus company revenue plays a role... the $4 billion dollar financial company I worked for could pay more than the $120 million distributor, whereas the government didn't pay as much as commercial when I worked for them. Now I am at a privately held company about $500 million and they are just cheap, making slightly more than the govt.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Just got this in an e-mail.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186500745

On job pay.

Glen A. Johnson
If you like fun and sun, check out Tek-Tips Florida Forum
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell."
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), English critic & novelist

 

[MasterRacker]

<brief off-topic>
Questionable running game and relatively immobile QB, a good lineman's gotta be a good thing. (Even if he did go to Iowa... ;-) )
</end>

Greg, be cautious in intrepreting surveys. Some show total comp, some show just salary, some are regional, some are national, different job descriptions, etc. The ones put oput by consulting firms or headhunters are usually inflated. It very hard to do an apples to apples comparison and you have to do that first before you even begin to average the surveys. Try to find out what other jobs in your area are paying also. Not just in IT. If construction in your area is 20% below national average, IT probably will be as well.

It can help. I did the analysis and appended it to performance reviews for a few years and it did finally help get me bumped to a range I was comfortable with. (Then about a year later, the company was dissolved by our parent and I was downsized. Argh!!!)

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[N0ktar]

Maybe it is your time to look for a position elsewhere?
I had a job in AZ once that paid $10/hr and I had to do PC tech support for entire school. It involved classroom prepping, ghosting drives, installing, reinstalling and configuring servers, local admin support, desktop support and much more - you name it I did it, including web design.
Was it fair? not really but I worked the job just to get the skills and experience, it paid off eventually with free IT classes and I moved on to a different position afterwords making more than twice that much.

Learn as much as you can and if needs to be get your pay raise elswhere when you're ready. Only you can make the change.

 

[mmorancbt]

How long have you worked in this role?

What do you want to do with your career?

Are you getting opportunities to learn new things and meet people that add value to what you know?

The first question is pragmatic. If you have been there less than 5 years, your pay is probably average.

The next two are more critical. I strongly believe there are times to approach your career with a "trade pay for opportunity" mentality.

If you are gaining broad industry and managerial (project management) experience, you are way ahead of many who may earn significantly more than you.

Your next step is to create an income goal. The income goal is not contingent upon salary surveys or even based on your current skillset. It is based on what you believe you can make if you learned all the things you needed to learn and were in the ideal situation.

Once your income goal is in place, look at where you are and map a plan to get to your income goal.

Too many professionals back in to a salary based on the job they perform and the "average salary". If you are near or even above averages, consider that there are others who are much higher than average. Don't strive for the average or even slightly higher than that.

Instead, income goal/lifestyle goal - much more critical.

I, for the most part, work out of my house. I've done that for nearly 10 years - on and off - and most of the last 5 years.

The huge majority of people who do what I do (or believe they do what I do) still drive into an office everyday.

Once I created an income goal and a lifestyle goal, I was able to analyze and look at opportunities that closely aligned with that goal. Opportunities that had the pay but no flexibility were not an option. Opportunities that had the flexibility but not the pay were not an option.

Just to reiterate. Create an income and lifestyle goal. Then, look at your current opportunity in light of how well is positions you to achieve that goal.

Matthew Moran (career blog and podcast below)
Career Advice with Attitude for the IT Pro

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/career

http://techcareerconsult.blogspot.com

 

[gbaughma]

Let me digest that for a bit.....

Thanks for your reply, though.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg