Enterprise CIOs saw biggest gains as IT salaries inched up in 2012

IT salaries inched up nearly 2 percent in 2012, pushing compensation back up to January 2008 levels. Some IT professionals, however, enjoyed significantly higher increases, particularly CIOs and employees focused on quality control, records management, and data-center operations.

Between January 2012 and January 2013, the total mean compensation for all IT professionals has increased from $77,773 to $79,312, according to research company Janco Associates’ “2013 IT Salary Survey.” At midsized companies, total IT compensation increased by 2.39 percent, from $74,016 to $75,784. At large enterprises, median compensation rose from $81,531 to $82,840, or around 1.6 percent.

Large-enterprise CIOs saw particularly significant gains in terms of base pay, a 6.04 percent boost up to an average of $182,210. CIOs at midsized enterprises saw a pay boost of 1.6 percent, up to $165,820. The report did not include specifics on bonuses, which hit upward of $7 million at the largest companies in 2011; it just noted that they remained steady year over year.

Overall, IT executives at midsized companies have fared better than their enterprise counterparts. At smaller companies, their salaries are mostly back to where they were pre-recession, with a near-3 percent increase from $122,031 to $125,638 for the year. Large-company IT execs’ salaries are just below what they were in 2008, dipping from $141,358 at the start of 2012 to $139,230 by year’s end.

Across the board, salary changes varied significantly depending on job title and company size. The following IT positions at large enterprises saw the highest pay increases, by percentage, for the year:

1. Computer operations shift manager saw their total mean compensation increase by 12.26 percent, from $64,747 to $72,682
2. Network services supervisor pay increased by 12.11 percent from $54,740 to $61,369
3. Quality control manager compensation swelled by 11.66 percent, from $77,162 to $86,160
4. Librarian pay at large enterprise increased by 9.42 percent, from $42,988 to $47,036
5. Application development managers’ pay grew by 8.52 percent, from $77,888 to $84,526
6. Production control analysts now have a mean total compensation of $62,849, an 8.26 percent increase over $58,054 from a year ago
7. Computer operations shift supervisor take home 8.25 percent more, from $44,959 to $48,668
8. Managers of production services are paid 7.35 percent more on average, from $77,168 to $82,838
9. Operations analyst gained 7.32 percent in total mean compensation, from $58,628 to $62,919
10. Computer operations managers saw their total pay package grow by 7.17 percent, from $92,433 to $99,058

Meanwhile, the IT positions at large companies with the biggest pay decreases are as follows:

1. VP of consulting services pay is down 12.34 percent from $132,677 to $116,309
2. VP of administration compensation saw a 6.39 decrease from $129,268 to $121,002
3. Training and documentation managers earn a mean total of $73,110, a 5.59 year-over-year drop from $77,437
4. Webmaster compensation is down 5.08 percent, from $64,355 to $61,088
5. Hardware installation coordinator pay dwindled by 4.11 percent, from $50,654 to $48,572
6. Distributed-systems project managers now earn a mean total of $104,479, a 3.49 percent dip from $100,830
7. VPs of security (or CSOs) saw their annual compensation drop by 3.4 percent, from $149,163 to $144,090
8. Director of production/data center earn 3.34 percent less year over year, from $134,224 to $129,744
9. Forms and graphics designer rake in 2.47 percent less on average, from $44,321 to $43,226
10. Desktop-support supervisor now earn $75,102 on average, a 2.41 percent decrease from $73,292

Here are the most significant salary increases, by percentage, for IT pros at midsize companies:

1. Manager of quality control, up 23.4 percent from $53,834 to $66,432
2. Manager of information center, up 14.89 percent from $59,886 to $68,802
3. Librarian, a 10.87 percent increase from $43,966 to $48,743
4. Operations analyst pay grew by 8.8 percent, from $60,014 to $65,296
5. Programmer/analysts now earn a total mean compensation of $75,895, a 7.43 percent increase from $70,649
6. Directors of  IT planning earn 6.58 percent more, up from $95,494 to $101,779
7. Computer operations shift supervisor take home a total of $49,492, a year-over-year increase of 6.55 percent from $46,451
8. Hardware installations supervisor compensation grew by 5.75 percent, up from $52,717 to $55,750
9. Change control analyst now rake in 5.88 percent more than they did a year ago, from $52,235 to $55,307
10. Application development managers saw total pay jump by 5.2 percent, from $68,547 to $72,113

At the other end of the spectrum at midsize companies, here are the positions that saw the biggest drops in overall total compensation:

1. Systems project manager, down 5.93 percent from $92,809 to $87,309
2. Data center facility administrator, a 4.84 percent decrease from $63,070 to $60,017
3. Distributed-systems project manager, a 4.87 percent dip from $92,236 to $87,747
4. Voice/wireless communications manager, down by 3.74 percent from $76,809 to $73,937
5. Hardware installations coordinator, a 3.3 percent decline from $48,575 to $46,973
6. Webmaster, down 2.8 percent from $63,471 to $61,695
7. Network control analyst, a 2.16 drop from $65,583 to $64,165
8. Production services manager, down by 1.51 percent from $85,014 to $83,730
9. Change control supervisor pay dropped 1.39 percent from $73,535 to $72,516
10. OS production managers earn 1.37 less, from $86,680 to $85,495

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