InformationWeek 2021 IT Salary Survey Shows IT is a Stable and Steady Career Path

The COVID-19 Pandemic Put IT Professionals at the Center of Business as Technology Replaced Physical and In-Person Transactions and Work

InformationWeek, the world’s most trusted business technology resource, unveiled the InformationWeek 2021 IT Salary Survey report. In a year full of turmoil and disruption, the survey found that IT is a stable and steady career. As technology became central to operating plans for businesses and other organizations during the pandemic, 50% of survey respondents said that a career path in IT is more secure than most others, compared with 39% of respondents who said that in last year’s survey.

“The year 2020 was incredibly disruptive, but IT professionals were at the center of helping their organizations enable new digital sales and fulfillment channels, helping employees get set up to work from home, and securing that increasingly distributed infrastructure”

“The year 2020 was incredibly disruptive, but IT professionals were at the center of helping their organizations enable new digital sales and fulfillment channels, helping employees get set up to work from home, and securing that increasingly distributed infrastructure,” said Jessica Davis, senior editor at InformationWeek and author of the 2021 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey report. “It’s no wonder that IT pros consider their career paths more secure than most others.”

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Key takeaways from the 2021 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey report:

• The overall median compensation for IT professionals increased in 2020 compared to 2019, but those salary increases were not as widespread as they had been in past years. Just 48% of IT professionals saw their compensation increase in the past 12 months compared to 2019 when a total of 71% enjoyed a compensation increase.
• The median compensation package for IT professionals increased overall in 2020 compared to 2019. The median total compensation for an IT professional was $120,000 compared to $110,000 in 2019.
• The majority of IT professionals said that COVID-19 impacted their jobs by sending them home to work remotely either temporarily or permanently.
• IT professionals reported that what matters most about their jobs was that their opinion and knowledge are valued, cited by 42% of respondents. That’s a big change from last year’s top aspect: base pay.
• The IT gender wage gap increased in the 2021 survey with the median compensation for men at $125,000 compared to the median salary for women at $105,000 — a $20,000 gap in 2020, compared to a $15,000 gap in 2019.
• IT remains a field that is not diverse in gender or ethnicity. A total of 85% of respondents to the year’s survey were male, 12% female, 1% non-binary, and 3% declined to state a gender.
• For the first time, the InformationWeek IT Salary Survey asked the respondents to describe their race. Seventy-one percent of respondents are white, 9% are Asian, 4% are Black/African American, 3% are Hispanic/Latino, 1% are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 1% are American Indian/Alaska Native. Due to the small number of non-white respondents, the 2021 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey was unable to accurately determine whether a wage gap exists between white and non-white IT professionals.

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InformationWeek surveyed 840 information technology professionals employed in the United States with questions related to salaries, benefits, and other career issues. Nearly half of the respondents work in management roles (46%), and just over half hold staff positions (54%). More than half (54%) are from enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, and 76% are from companies with more than 100 employees. Respondents come from more than 25 industries including consulting and business services, government, financial services, banking, healthcare, manufacturing and education.

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