IT salaries ‘not as low as statistics say’ ****************************************************************************************** * IT salaries ‘not as low as statistics say’ ****************************************************************************************** 26.11.2007, autor: Marcel Bodnár While the Czech Republic is trying to become a “knowledge economy,” a recent survey showed the countries where IT managers earned the least. But industry experts point out that when open branches here, they are more concerned with finding technical workers than managers. The Czech Republic ended up as the eighth-worst paying country with an average IT manager (Kč 960,950) annually according to international human resources consultancy Mercer. In Eu Bulgaria, with $22,240 per year, had lower wages among the surveyed countries. The other c lower wages than the Czech Republic were in Asia and the Pacific, with Vietnam paying the the Philippines at $22,280 and India at $25,000. On the other end of the continuum, Switze placed first and second with annual salaries of $140,960 and $123,080, respectively. Analy causes for the discrepancy. One problem that analysts cite is that the Czech Republic is still considered as a country work force. Therefore big international IT companies are moving their software production the management in the home country, which is mainly in Western Europe or the United States roles are being moved to regions where talent is cheaper; the jobs that remain in Western United States may be fewer in number but are the more demanding and complex roles like ven managers, internal consultants and IT business partners,” said David Van De Voort, IT work at Mercer. He added that another problem is the educational level of Czech IT specialists. The core of this issue does not lie in IT education itself, which is at a very high level. Hynek Rychtář a senior consultant at HR agency Talents Czech, said that country’s main uni Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague, the Czech Technical Un in Prague and Masaryk University (MU) in Brno, South Moravia— are able to turn out highly professionals, at least as far as computer skills apply. This is supported by the experience of John Mulvey, managing consultant in recruitment com Recruitment. “Our clients are extremely happy with the education the [Czech] applicants ha the problem is that they do not have so called “soft skills,” like communication or busine therefore are unsuitable for management positions, he said. However, it is possible to fin of properly trained IT professionals with management skill among Czech graduates. New graduates from the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics at the University of Economic Prague are the best paid of all graduates from universities in the Czech Republic. They ge monthly salary of € 1,347, which is nearly twice the average of graduates from all other f Czech universities. The reason given is that VŠE graduates not only gain theoretical knowl field, they also acquire some economic and business skills, and at least one foreign langu student from the university. Having near perfect IT knowledge, considering the huge amount technologies used, is now considered to be secondary at the job interviews. “Most of the g have practical experience from part-time jobs. And they will be trained in the particular the company uses for developing software after they are given a job,” Rychtář said about h market currently works. Since theoretical IT knowledge is common, the more broad an applic and knowledge base outside of IT, the more of an edge an applicant has when applying for a Average salaries on the rise Although the average salary of an IT manager in the Czech Rep compared to the rest of the world, it is still higher than rest of the IT salaries here. I company Gartner, which issues evaluation reports on various issues, this month issued a re Analysis of the Czech Republic as an Offshore Services Location. One of the areas evaluate IT sector. According to the report, annual salaries for regular programmers typically rang to $24,000 annually; Czech software engineers are paid from $23,000 to $32,000; IT support average of $15,000 to $18,000, and Web administrators earn approximately $21,000. Those nu than, for example, salaries in India, that many international IT companies have been touti the new IT paradise with highly skilled English speaking programmers. But the Czech Republ to the Gartner report, one significant advantage when compared to India or other Asian cou information technology industry is booming—its nearness to Western Europe, which makes it managers of the companies that place their branches in Prague, or other cities to not only also to visit the branch personally. Other advantages are that office space prices are still quite inexpensive. However, althou Prague are relatively lower than in similar Western cities, they have already reached the IT companies would rather move their premises to, as Gartner calls them, second-tier citie Brno, South Moravia. On the other hand, the rising costs do not seem to bother some compan computer maker Dell, for example, recently moved its central data office to Prague. HR man with statistics Although most of the statistics about IT wages place the Czech Republic am countries, many Czech HR managers do not agree that Czech wages are too low. “[IT wages] a rising, and they are competitive, at least in Prague, where we examine the market most tho those wages are approaching [the levels of] Western members of the European Union,” Rychtá Jan Červinka, CEO of business intelligence and data warehousing provider Adastra, also dis are low here, and he questioned the statistical methods that were used. “If we take into a taxation and social insurance payments the employer has to pay, which is 35 percent extra salary, I think there can be no doubt, that Czech IT wages are not as low as statistics sa adding that also purchasing power has to be factored into the equation. He also suggests t Poland, wages in the Czech IT sector are higher than those of other Central European count HR consultants would also agree that wage levels depend a lot on individual companies. “Fo international companies, the wages are comparable to wages in western countries. But emplo companies, for example developers working in [a software development language called] ‘C,’ underpaid,” said Martina Turpin, recruitment manager in recruitment agency B-Support. Anot cited is that branches of foreign companies often have their annual budgets set by the par cannot go beyond them. According to Turpin, this places a significant restriction on how h be. Some experts also point out that wages are not the only factor considered by applicants wh the IT sector. “There are other issues like self-development, how interesting the project applicant might work on, additional training and education that the company will provide h course various perks and benefits,” Mulvey explained. Those additional services and benefi provide are not included in statistics, although they often have a higher value for the pe salary itself, he added. Salaries will rise Almost all of the HR managers, IT company CEOs and recruitment consulta contacted agree on one point: salaries in Czech IT sector will definitely rise. How much a rise is open to debate—some say it will be rapidly and others say progressively. Only B-Su said that wage increases might be slowed due to the influx of educated people from Eastern Asian countries, but she does not dispute that those salaries will increase slowly. She al on how IT companies could make the salaries they pay their employees reach a level that wo qualified employees from seeking employment in the West. “Czech branches should convince t companies to raise their budgets,” Turpin said. * WAGES OF IT MANAGERS IN THE WORLD      Top 10 paying countries Country Average annual salary ( in dollars) Switzerland                 123,080 Denmark                     123,080 Belgium                     121,170 United Kingdom              108,230 Ireland                     108,230 United States               106,730 Germany                     106,730 Canada                      93,860 Hong Kong                   90,340 Australia                    88,850    Lowest 10 paying countries Country Average annual salary ( in dollars) Vietnam                     22,240 Bulgaria                    22,240 Philippines                  31,720 India                        31,720 Indonesia                    31,720 Shanghai, China              33,770 Malaysia                     35,260 Czech Republic              35,880 Beijing, China              36,220 Argentina                    43,180                           Source: Mercer