Income of electrotechnology, IT professionals shows twofold percentage increase

Median income for electrotechnology and information technology professionals showed a twofold percentage increase from the previous year, according to the latest IEEE-USA Salary & Fringe Benefit Survey.

Median incomes from primary sources -- base pay plus commissions, bonuses and net self-employment income -- for U.S. IEEE members working full-time in their primary area of technical competence went from $110,610 in the 2007 tax year to $116,000 in 2008. The 4.9 percent increase more than doubled the 2.4 percent rise from the previous survey.

Of the 12,119 U.S. IEEE members who participated in the Internet-based survey, 10,177 were employed full-time in their primary area of technical competence, or job specialty. The five largest job specialties were -- in descending order -- computers, energy and power engineering, circuits and devices, communications technology and systems and control.

The IEEE-USA Salary & Fringe Benefit Survey, 2009 Edition, is the 22nd compensation survey the organization has conducted since the first one in 1972. The results are valuable to employers seeking to know what type of compensation package they should put together to attract and retain electrotechnology and IT professionals, and to employees seeking to benchmark their salary and benefits.

The 82-page survey is available electronically at http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks/.

IEEE members who responded to the salary survey receive five free uses of the IEEE-USA Salary Calculator, which uses data from the report. Go to http://salaryapp.ieeeusa.org/rt , log in and select the salary calculator tab.

IEEE-USA just completed its 2010 survey with a record 14,724 responses. That report will be released in September.

Provided by IEEE-USA