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Survey: When It Comes to Exec IT Salaries, Mainframes Pull Big Bucks
Top IT managers who work with mainframes can expect to earn significantly more than other IT executives, according to the latest salary survey by ESJ.com. (Disclosure: ESJ.com is owned by the same parent company as this Web site.)
Of ESJ.com's readers -- a mix of mainframe, datacenter, server and other enterprise IT professionals -- CIOs and vice presidents in mainframe environments reported the highest average base salary of $232,700 per year. Those with the same title who work in AIX/Unix environments averaged $173,500, followed by $148,600 for those in midrange environments and $114,600 in non-mainframe Windows environments
With other IT management positions (with titles such as IS director, datacenter manager or network manager), those in midrange environments averaged the highest with $158,500, followed by mainframe at $111,750, AIX/Unix at $101,200 and Windows networking at $87,300.
In general, the survey found the average CIO/vice president salary for 2009 is $150,340, up slightly over 2008's average of $149,000. However, the average bonus earned with these titles dropped from $28,500 to $18,000 this year.
Still, it's not that bad of a year. Of the eight management positions this part of the survey covered, six of them saw the average base salary rise (the two that declined are networking manager and help desk/support manager). IT managers and enterprise architects also reported a higher average bonus versus the previous year.
The complete salary survey can be found online here. To jump directly to a breakdown of findings by title, use the following links:
A second part of the survey focused on non-management IT salaries will be released in early September.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].