U.S. IT pros salary stagnated in 2010

Bangalore: The median raise for IT professionals in 2010 has been zero percent. This is the first time in 11 years that this has happened, according to Information Week's annual U.S. IT Salary Survey. The survey was conducted amongst 20,492 IT pros who responded between November and January. That flat pay holds true for IT managers and staffers, for both their base salaries and total compensation, which includes bonuses. It holds true for IT consultants and contractors, too. If stock options were the sign of the economic times at the start of the last decade, the salary freeze is the symbol for the start of this one, according to Information Week.

However, IT still remains a well-paying profession. For managers, median base salary is $103,000 and total compensation is $111,000. For staffers, median base salary is $81,000 and total compensation is $85,000. There continues to be huge pay differences by skill and industry. In fact, the survey has some positive signs for the most highly skilled IT pros. This year, 10 IT staff job functions earn $90,000 or more in median total compensation, up from seven last year. Ten IT management job functions earn $120,000 or more in median total compensation, up from two last year.

By title, the best-paid staffers continue to be IT architects, whose median total pay tops $100,000. Project management cracked the six-figure mark for the first time, at $105,000 median total compensation. We often hear CIOs talk about the importance of project managers, but we haven't always seen that respect reflected in paychecks. Perhaps that's changing.