Average overall salary is up for Microsoft IT professionals, according to Redmond Magazine’s 2006 Salary Survey, released Sept. 12.
Salaries showed an increase of 3.3 percent from the 2005 survey. While this year’s numbers are a downturn from the 12 percent jump seen in 2004, it does show a continued recovery from the mere .3 percent increase in salaries in 2003, when the field was affected by outsourcing threats and an economy not fully recovered from the recession.
Breaking $70,901, IT professional salaries surpass the U.S. overall workforce average salary of $63,210, according to the Labor Department’s June wage report.
Average salaries within IT depend on title. Help desk/user support specialists averaged $47,775; Webmasters averaged $66,827; database administrators averaged $79,936; and non-supervisory programming project leads averaged $90,000.
Among Microsoft-certified base salaries, the range was even wider. While MCITP: SQL Server-certified workers averaged $125,000, MCTS: SQL Server-certified pros averaged $91,500. Microsoft Certified Architects had average salaries of $42,500.
Overall, respondents reported an average salary increase over the last year of $4,307, but nearly one-fifth reported no increase at all. Thirty-six percent said that adding a Microsoft Certification to their training had no impact on their salaries, while 43 percent said it did, most often in less than a 10 percent increase in salary.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Salaries, Satisfaction Up Among Microsoft IT Pros
