Annual salaries of executives and specialists in the field of IT technology have risen by on average 3.0 percent. Currently executives in the IT business earn 105.000 Euros annually on average. An IT specialist on average receives 60.000 Euros. These are the findings of a salary study called “Führungs- und Fachkräfte in der Informationstechnologie 2007″conducted by the Kienbaum management consultancy.
192 companies took part in the above survey. At the executive level annual salaries range between 84.000 and 117.000 Euros, whereas specialists have to content themselves with salaries ranging from 49.000 to 71.000 Euros per year. Personnel responsibility increases according to the size of a company or the department in question. A director of IT management in a company employing up to 100 staff receives an average salary of 95.000 Euros per year. In a company with more than 5.000 staff he would earn 169.000 Euros on average each year in the same position.
Variable remuneration components are becoming more and more important in IT salary policies. 78% of all IT executives and 55% of all IT specialists receive some kind of variable remuneration in the form of premiums, royalties, bonuses and other gratifications. In the year 2006 the average amount of such gratifications was 17.900 Euros for executives and 6800 Euros for specialists. These figures correspond to 18% and 10% of the total income of executives and specialists respectively. Additional company benefits such as complementary insurance, employee leave benefits, company pension schemes and company cars are other important parts of salary packages.
Geographical factors influence salaries too. Salaries of IT experts in German large cities and conurbations such as Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin are the highest. The reason for this is the stronger competition between companies and higher living costs in these regions as compared to rural areas. In the New Laender the annual average salary of IT experts still amounts to just 80% of the German average IT salary.
The new generation of executives and specialists is always better educated also in the IT business. 51% of IT executives are university graduates while this figure is 33% with regard to IT specialists. 