What Factors Affect a Tech Pro's Salary?
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What Factors Affect a Tech Pro's Salary?
This survey shows how much your salary is affected by everything from who you are and where you live to what you know and how much responsibility you embrace. -
Pay Increases
The average salary for IEEE members in 2014 was $133,000, up from $129,000 in 2013. -
Workloads Shrink
The typical member is working fewer hours: The average number of hours worked weekly dropped from more than 47 in 2013 to 45 in 2014. -
Staying Put
More than 86% of the survey respondents said they've worked for three or fewer employers over the past 10 years. -
Staff Stability
41% of IEEE members surveyed have been with their current employer for at least 10 years. -
Location Matters
Where tech pros work continues to be a salary determiner: Median pay for IEEE members in the Western U.S. was $144,000 in 2014, compared with $113,200 in the upper Midwest. -
Gender Gap
In 2014, male members still made $13,635 more than their female counterparts, but that gap is down $3,000 from 2013. -
Race Gap
White members made $15,482 more than their black peers in 2014—$2,000 less than the 2013 gap. -
More Education = More Money
Advanced degrees pay off: An IEEE member with a Doctor of Law degree made an average of $178,000 in 2014, compared with $127,686 for members with bachelor's degrees. -
Managers Rake It In
More responsibility translates into more money. Members in management made an average of $165,000 in 2014, compared with $128,00 for in-the-trenches engineers. -
Picking a Specialty
The area of competence has a big influence over pay: Members who work with communications tech made an average of $152,000 in 2014, while those working with power and energy tech made $113,378.
If you want to make the most money possible working in information technology, it pays to be male, white, highly educated, coastal and willing to manage as many people as possible. That said, an employee's skin color and gender are finally becoming a little less important to their earning power. Such are the main takeaways from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE's) "2015 Salary and Benefits Survey." The association digitally polled more than 12,000 of its members and found that technology professionals' pay, which is rising steadily, varies greatly based on experience, geography, education and the type of expertise they have to offer. However, though Jim Jeffries, 2015 IEEE-USA president, was pleased with the idea that members are being rewarded for making good career decisions, he was especially encouraged by members' improving work conditions. "The latest results show a rate of salary growth greater than in recent years and also an encouraging closing—but not an elimination—of racial and gender salary gaps," Jeffries reported. The findings also indicate that technology is becoming an increasingly stable field, with employees changing jobs less frequently. In addition, technology workers are putting in slightly fewer hours.