Rates on the rise for IT professionals

Pay rates for ICT professionals have grown by 3.4 per cent in the last year, according to a survey released yesterday by the Australian Computer Society (ACS).

Edward Mandla, president at the ACS, said: "While static or declining increases in salary have been recorded every year since 2000, this is the first trend upwards since 1998 and represents hope of a recovery for ICT professionals who've been hit hard by the downturn".

Despite the increased growth, the figure still lags behind the 4.9 per cent Average Weekly Earnings increase recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Contractor rates have also remained stagnant.

"One of the outcomes we saw last year was that employers were favouring full-time professional staff over hiring independent consultants, which raised the level of uncertainty for those working as contractors," Mandla said. "However, the increased new project activity we're seeing does bode well for independent professionals."

Management and sales/marketing roles continued to attract the highest remuneration packages, with general management offering an average of $145,000 and sales/marketing roles drawing $132,450.

At the other end of the scale were teaching/training roles at $70,705 and computer support at $65,124.

The ACS Remuneration Survey is carried out by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) and attracted responses from 1,551 ACS members.