2011 IT Salaries: How Much Are You Really Worth?

Datamation's annual IT Salary Guide lists salaries for various IT professionals, from software developers to IT systems administrators. Additionally, it lists salary increases for specialty IT skill sets. Curious what you're worth on the open market? Find out what you can expect to earn, should you decide to look for a new job in the new year.

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The good news: The The 2011 IT Salary Guide demonstrates that IT salary levels are once again headed upward.

The 2011 IT Salary Guide indicates some respectable boosts in average salary. Lead applications developers get a 4.7% increase and software engineers enjoy a 4.1% boost in paycheck. Okay, so IT managers move up a ho-hum 2.5% and project managers rise 2.8%, but Web developers jump 4.6% and System Security Admins levitate a healthy 4% (seems like security is always hot).

The bad news: these rising IT salary numbers are merely compensating for last year's 2 percent to 4 percent decreases. So alas, the net effect is that IT salaries are essentially flat over the last year or so. Yes, times are tough.

Below is salary info for a sys admin position, one of many positions for which data has been gathered and published. To see the other positions, check out the article for complete survey results.

Systems Administrator

2011 average salary range: $53,250 - $83,000.

• The 2011 salary range is an increase of 3.6 percent over this job's 2010 salary range, which was $51,250 to $80,250.
• The 2010 salary range was a 2.8 percent decrease under this job's 2009 salary range, which was $52,750 to $82,500.
• The 2009 salary range is an increase of 3.6 percent over this job's 2008 salary range, which was $51,750 to $78,750.

Add a salary increase for the following skills:

• Add 6 percent for Basis administration skills (down from 7 percent in 2010)
• Add 9 percent for Cisco Network administration skills (no change from 2010; down from 12 percent in 2009)
• Add 8 percent for Linux/Unix administration skills (no change from 2010; down from 10 percent in 2009)
• Add 8 percent for virtualization skills (up from 7 percent in 2010)
• Add 4 percent for Windows 2000/Windows 2003/XP/Vista skills (down from 6 percent in 2010; down from 8 percent in 2009)
• Add 6 percent for Windows 7 skills (down from 7 percent in 2010)

Note: Since these numbers are national averages, they must also be adjusted based on your area of the country.

Salary levels are approximately 10 percent to 30 percent higher in the North East; about average in the South Atlantic (Florida to Delaware); average to modestly lower in the Midwest, Mountain west, and South; and 5 percent to 30 percent higher on the West coast.
IT salaries in large metropolitan areas are higher than the national average. For example, in the following cities they are:

City	Deviation
Boston, Mass.	30% higher
Stamford, Conn.	31% higher
New York, N.Y.	41% higher
Washington, D.C.	30% higher
Philadelphia, Penn.	15% higher
Atlanta, Ga.	10% higher
Miami, Fla.	10% higher
Chicago, Ill.	23% higher
Dallas/Houston, Texas	3% to 5% higher
Irvine, Calif.	24% higher
Los Angeles, Calif.	24% higher
San Diego, Calif.	14% higher
San Francisco, Calif.	35% higher
San Jose, Calif.	32% higher
Seattle, Wash.	18% higher