IT wages fall by up to 50%, says survey

SALARY levels in information technology (IT) and teleco sectors have fallen by up to 50%, a wages survey has found.

The Mark Mitchell Sales and Marketing Annual Salary Survey shows that practically all workers in the IT sector have seen their wages fall by a minimum of 15% in the last 12 months with some workers wages halved as bonus levels and other extras were cut.

The survey uncovered a “back to reality” stance by employers. This term was the explanation given by client companies during survey research “There have been some notable changes in sector pay levels in recent years, between what was perceived as the high earning sectors, telecommunications and information technology, and the more modestly paid sectors,” said Mark Mitchell, managing director of the recruitment company which carried out the survey. “To be fair, one could equally call this a realigning of sector that saw earnings soar to an all time high. An example of this saw sales professionals earn salary packages of 120,000 to 150,000 and higher per annum in the telecommunications and information technology sector,” Mr Mitchell said.

However, in sharp contrast, the healthcare sector, which has experienced an unprecedented number of mergers and takeovers, has not seen a negative effect on salary levels.

“With the downturn in the technology sector, the pharmaceutical/healthcare sector has remained strong in terms of pay with increases of at least 15% year-on-year in recent years,” Mr Mitchell said.

Workers in Dublin have done exceptionally well in recent years according to Mr Mitchell who said there will be a significant swing to Munster in commercial, retail and industrial projects in the near future.

“This sector has enjoyed a longer sustained period of consistency than is normally associated with this historically volatile industry, which has seen pay levels rise by at least 10% to 15% with envisaged levelling-off in 2003,” he said.

Mr Mitchell said while some companies have had lay-offs of the typical sales representative, there has been an almost overnight demand for category managers where demand far exceeds supply.

“Salary levels have held their own in 2002 and the outlook for 2003 is somewhat similar with modest increases of between 5% to 10% expected for the remainder of the year,” he added.

Mr Mitchell said a significant number of workers had changed jobs for financial reasons.

“There are a reasonable number of these people who are still out of work, or working in consultancy as a short-term measure while they try to secure full-time employment, in what is clearly a shrunken market where the key drivers for attracting candidates are longevity and stability of tenure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Irish senior executives saw their salaries increase by more than anywhere else in Western Europe last year with average pay increases of 5.8%, according to a survey by pensions and investment consultants Hewitt, Bacon & Woodrow. The Western European average rise was just 4%.