Wages on the Rise
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According to the US Bureau of Labor, skilled tech workers saw wages rise in the fourth quarter. Database administrators are now up to $55.42!!! Woo-hoo!
That doesn't sound like much, especially compared to the $81.58 for ERP financial consultants or even the $61.46 for project managers. Of course I bet a bunch of those ERP finance guys live in New York or San Fran and that $30/hour is lost on rent. And parking 🙂
I guess we should be happy that DBAs are considered skilled. Heck I've worked with a number of clients that thought they should have an intern monkey running their SQL Servers and paying just over $30k a year. That's about $15/hour. Not counting benefits.
You have to take these numbers with a grain of salt since they're compilations, include probably consulting payments and all sizes of companies. And they're a sampling, so who knows in your area, for your type of company/size of company, what the difference is.
I just think it's good for the DBAs to see that salaries are going up.
Steve Jones
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Just Curious !
$55.42 for DBA. Does it apply to DBA for all kind of database - Oracle / SQL Server / DB2, and how many years of experiences would get that kind of money? A couple year !
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You have to be very careful with these surveys and look at who is sponsoring them.
For example, directors of UK companies hire an independent wage consultant to set their salaries. These consultants will say that that average wage for a director is £x. All directors think they are above average so they pay above the average rate.
No wage consultant (with an eye on repeat fees) is going to say (in a diplomatic way), no, you are a bunch of overpaid, underperforming monkeys.
Similarly, salary surveys for an industry are used to set expectations. For example, a recruitmant company may publish a salary survey that ups the ante because it is in their interests to get the highest possible rates.
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In my opinion the only salary survey that matters is the one where you ask your boss for a raise.
While I understand the need for companies to "pay commensurate with the market" I also feel that a company should go above and beyond that, perhaps in the area of benefits as well, to keep and attract the best workers.
I've got a friend who has been in the IT consulting business for about 5 years now. He's changed jobs 6 or 7 times, each time for more money for basically the same job. He probably woul have stayed with his first employer if they gave him raises equal to his worth and not to what the market said he was worth.
I'm finding the same problem now. I have 10 years of IT experience, 5 with SQL server, 2 with MySQL and recently went on an interview for a full-time DBA job. Had I taken the job it would have been about a $20,000 pay cut from where I am now. Why? Becuase that is what the recruiting agency told them a DBA with 5 years of experience was worth. Never mind that they are looking for someone to come in, work ten hour days, be on call 24/7 and redesign several of their database systems.
-- J.T.
"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."
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Once upon a time I used to work as a network admin for a temp and permanent placement company. Yes this does happen, also think of it this way, those companies will tell a hiring agent a lower base salary so that when they charge their fee they don’t price themselves out of a fill. This is particularly true in the temporary staffing industry. For permanent placements it’s a one time fee, for temporary work their fee needs to include any benefits they give the employee (my company offered health care and took care of the workers comp taxes and other things employers need to pay so their clients didn’t have to), plus any payroll costs, insurance costs, and if they bond all of their employees as my employer did, the cost for that as well. And then oh by the way there is the cost of electricity to keep the lights on and rent etc. etc. etc.
I'm not defending thier pricing practices or what they tell thier clietns to pay people, just letting you know yes it does happen (from an inside perspective) giving you a better idea of why.
But that's just my two cents.
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I've actually been a participant in 2 of the industry salary surveys for the last 3 years. I've done this for fun and to receive the "free" copy of the results (which others have to pay for). The thing that I notice is that for DBAs really do not fit into a 'standard' IT salary survey. Most other positions can be categorized quite nicely. More often than not though the DBA usually fall into "other" in over 50% of the questions ! As for the quote about the $$$/hour, well, that's more market (location based). Here are some examples in the Chicago metro area from last year garnered from recruiters I know, friends in the field and local postings:
SQL DBA - 55-70k
Oracle - DBA 80-140k
Sybase - DBA 70-90k
Sybase Replication 120k
UDB2 - 70-80k
Now this is for the majority of the stuff around. However if you are willing to be as selective in your position search as the companies are at their respective hiring search, then there is no reason to pay the above information any mind at all. It just takes longer to get what you're worth. The old adage of allowing 1 month search time for every 10k in salary that you are over 30k per year is a good starting point. Personally it has never taken more than 4 months (although by the formula, it could have been quite lengthier !).
Oh, at present I support SQL Server, Oracle, UDB2 and a few other smaller DBMS systems ...
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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I live in Update NY. I was sure the SQL Server DBAs in two companies that I worked for got paid more than $70K and they were treated liked 'God'. Here we had a hard time to find SQL Server DBAs and SQL Server developers.
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In Denver, I've typically seen 80-100K for a senior SQL DBA, but I have seen a few in the 70s for government or smaller companies.
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I am amazed how many of you are lucky to have time to learn and specialize.
I been a sql dba ,developer for 7 years and do alot of .net ,asp.net developement.Now i am jumping into mircosoft crm and even write my own SQL reports.I even did coldfusion .
No wonder i am in the low market avg in boston.senier jack of all trades do not make money i guess.
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Oh, do shut up!
I'd love to be making that much. You are right, generalists don't get as much as specialists do.
-- J.T.
"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."
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It's not necessarily a matter of time, satz. For me, it's a matter of picking and choosing my jobs, taking short-term contracts, taking on new tasks at my job and making sacrifices that will enable me to be on the career path that I want.
For example, at one job, I volunteered for an R & D project which got me tons of SQL Server experience, which I then leveraged into taking over for the DBA who was laid off.
Currently, I'm working on a 6-month contract in Boise (even though I live in Portland) which will give me the skills and experience that I need for the next step that I want to take.
I did my research, figured out where the best opportunities were for me, wrote my resume (no lies, just highlighted the pertinent skills) and career objectives to lead me towards those opportunities, took some risks and made opportunities.
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well i know how much my dba makes and let me tell you hearing that made my head light
.pam,
I am happy have you have a career path you want.i worked in so many technology`s that doing 1 and specializing kinda now seems far way .for example i just rolled out a .Net dll that does my cross machine data quering .This is run as a com dll and used inside sql server.something i came up with [which my dba did not for example].
i am certified in oracle but have all my experience in SQL server.weird .
Now i am reading microsoft crm and diving right in.........hopefully its a good call.
good luck
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