Tech Professionals Unhappy with Salaries and Incentives

As an IT pro, are you happy with your salary and incentives? A survey from Dice.com (News - Alert) found that technology workers were unhappy with their compensation and non-monetary incentives. As the recession has kept a damper on raises—only a 1 percent increase in the average IT salary—tech professionals expressed disappointment over the efforts of their employers to motivate and retain them.

The survey results were compiled for Dice's recent 2009-10 Tech Salary Survey Results. Almost half (47 percent) of those surveyed felt their employers did nothing to keep them motivated. Only 19 percent said they were offered interesting or challenging assignments as a primary motivator, while just 14 percent said the same thing about flexible work hours. Around 4 percent reported being sent to training and certification courses as a key benefit, while another 4 percent said they were promoted or given a new title to keep them interested.

But more money also went a long way toward job satisfaction. About a quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed said they received a bonus last year. Among those who did, only 27 percent were unhappy with their compensation. Among those who received no bonuses, 42 percent said they were dissatisfied with their pay.

Based on the results of the survey, job and salary dissatisfaction are at their highest levels in years, according to Dice. That presents a challenge looming for companies and IT departments who want to retain their best and brightest. Dice feels that technology pros are in a better position to fight for career advancement. At the same time, HR and IT groups should look to compensation, training, and career growth to motivate and keep their workers.

In the salary part of Dice's salary survey, the company found that on average IT pros in the government and defense sectors took home a 4.4 percent increase in their salaries last year. Overall, tech salaries rose 4 percent in Washington D.C., but workers in New York City saw their compensation inch up only 1.5 percent. Silicon Valley still is one of the top metro areas for IT professionals, with an average salary of $96,299.

Salaries for technology pros with skills in JBoss and Weblogic topped the $100,000 mark, reaching $101,869 and $100,313, respectively. People with operating system experience in Solaris earned $96,672, while those who work with AIX enjoyed an average salary of $95,464.

The best-paying titles included IT Management at $114,874, Information Architecture at $105,247, Project Manager at $103,437, Software Engineer at $91,342, and Database Administrator at $91,283.

Dice's latest salary survey was presented online between August and November of last year, drawing responses from almost 17,000 Dice job seekers and visitors.

Though Dice's results are from the third and fourth quarters of last year, I think they're still valid and true. A recession always puts companies into survival mode, so raises and incentives become low on the list of priorities. And with the job market so tight, many businesses feel their employees aren't about to leave. Workers also are likely to stay put as they see fewer opportunities on the open market.

But as the economy starts to bounce back and the job market slowly and hopefully improves, motivating and retaining skilled employees must rise higher on the priority list. And that's the time for skilled and experienced IT pros to think about their options if they're not happy.