Survey Points To 3 Percent Raise For IT Pros In 2013

January 28, 2013 Alex Woodie

IT workers in the United States can expect to receive a 3.0 percent increase in pay this year compared to the amount they received last year, according to a recent survey by Computer Economics. While the boost isn’t enough to break out the bubbly, it beats the venerable poke in the eye socket. The market research firm also found that more businesses expect to add IT staff than those expecting lay offs.

In its IT Salary Report 2013, Computer Economics found that organizations are budgeting for a 3.0 percent increase in pay for IT workers. The 3.0 percent raise–as measured at the median (50th percentile) level–is slightly better than the 2.8 percent pay raise that the median IT worker got in 2012, and is significantly better than the 2.1 percent pay raise enjoyed by the average American worker last year (as measured by the US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics).

However, the planned pay raises by IT organizations in the U.S. remains relatively compressed, says John Longwell, Computer Economics vice president of research. “At the 75th percentile, organizations are also budgeting for a 3.0 percent average raise, a sign that wage pressure remains relatively low,” Longwell says. “Still, when viewed against the backdrop of a negligible 1.7 percent inflation rate in the consumer price index, the gains appear somewhat more positive.”

The pay increase meshes with the increase in overall IT spending forecast by Gartner earlier this month. Last fall, Gartner forecast a 3.8 increase in global IT spending, which includes everything from hardware and software for consumers and businesses, in addition to communications. On January 3, Gartner boosted its global IT spending forecast upward, to 4.2 percent, representing $3.7 trillion (or about 5 percent of the $70 trillion world economy).

Computer Economics says IT pay might increase in 2013 more than forecast if the economy grows faster than expected, or if IT staff turnover picks up. Computer Economics says turnover dropped to a 3.2 percent annual rate in 2012, down from 4.0 percent last year. The historical norm is closer to 5 percent, the research group says.

The firm found that the hiring outlook for IT jobs is moderately positive, with 39 percent of organizations expecting to augment their IT staffs this year, 18 percent looking to cut overall IT staffing levels, and 43 percent expecting no change. “That less than half of all organizations plan to increase staff is an indication that hiring by IT organizations will remain soft,” the report states. “If business conditions improve, both in the U.S. and globally, we anticipate that hiring will accelerate.”

To complete its IT Salary Report 2013, which you can get here, Computer Economics collected salary data for about 70 IT-related positions for organizations in 400 areas of the US. The data includes base play plus incentive pay.