Certification Magazine’s 2009 Salary Survey

Certification Magazine published it’s 2009 salary survey this month and the results are very encouraging for the IT professionals. Here are some of the highlights.

– This year’s Certification Magazine’s Salary Survey received more than 40,000 responses from IT professionals in over 150 countries around the world.

– In 2009, the average U.S. total salary, including benefits and incentives, was a generous $96,677. That is a 9 percent gain over last year’s average of $88,640.

– 30% respondents said they they got a raise between 10 and 20 percent.

– Most respondents (52%) said the raise was 5% or less this year, compared to last year when the raise was 5%-10%.

– The total number of people who earned at least one certification this year was more than 67%.

– A full 96 percent of respondents from the top five countries with the highest salaries said they were certified.

– The cert that commanded the highest salary this year was the Brocade Certified Network Engineer (BCNE, formerly FNCNE) with a whopping average total salary of $146,250.

– The cert that connoted the lowest salary was the CIW (Certified Internet Web Professional), with an average salary of $59,290. This was followed by the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) with $62,030.

– 90 percent of respondents were men.

– The largest number of responses (27 percent) came from the 25 to 29 age group, followed by the 30 to 34 demographic (roughly 21 percent).

– Approximately 42 percent of respondents have a bachelor’s degree, and 22 percent have a master’s degree. Nearly 12 percent have received technical training but no degree, and nearly 10 percent have just a high school diploma.

These are only the highlights. If you are in the IT industry, you definitely want to read the rest of the survey here.