Computer staff pay rises hit by recession

Computer staff pay rises have been hit by the recession and the rate of redundancies in the IT sector is increasing, according to CELRE's first Computer Staff Salary Survey of 2009.

The report is based on pay data from 61,233 employees in 207 companies, and is the latest in a series of computer staff salary surveys which has now been running for 40 years.

CELRE reports twice a year on computer staff pay, and the latest headline 3.1% figure for basic pay rises in a matched sample of employees is down from a peak of 5.7% a year ago.

Nationally, the redundancy rate increased only marginally from 1.6% in the six months before CELRE's equivalent report in 2008 to 1.7% in the six months to the 2009 report. But in inner London, a redundancy rate of 2.6% makes it the main cause of employee departures.

CELRE's salary tables show national average basic salary figures of:

• £118,710 for an IT director;
• £81,822 for a function head;
• £66,901 for a department manager or principal consultant; and
• £45,909 for a team leader or supervisor.

The report also includes salary figures for a further six non-managerial grades in IT. More detailed breakdowns of data are available by job function and seniority, location and industry, along with further information on the impact of key IT skills on pay levels.

Organisations which participate and subscribe can use the main tables in the two-volume report, or construct their own tables using XpertHR JobPricing. 

Further spreadsheet-based tools are also available from CELRE for those wanting to carry out pay benchmarking. CELRE's job definitions are fully compatible with those in the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).