Page 8 - THE Journal, January/February 2018

FEATURE | TECH TRENDS
For technology professionals, education has been a rewarding place to work over the last year. Salaries are up for the most part; job satisfaction is high; and the outlook for the future is positive — these according to the results of our third-annual K–12 IT Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey.
Salaries
Overall, the average salary for technology professionals in education (excluding classroom teachers) was $66,640 in 2017 — up about $3,000 from 2015 (fig. 1).
While C-level salaries were up on the whole ($100,400 in 2017 versus $99,045 in 2015), CIO salaries themselves declined from $105,469 in 2015 to an even $100,000 in 2017. That, however, is a slight recovery from 2016’s average of $99,583. (C-level includes CIO, CSO, CTO and CDO.)
Project managers and help desk/ support staff salaries took a hit in this year’s survey as well. Project managers declined to $70,636, down from $74,940 in 2015. Help desk/support fell slightly over the same period, from $41,425 to $40,410.
The most substantial positive jumps over the two-year period were:
Systems administrators, who leapt more than $18,000 — from $60,035 to $78,800;
Web developers, who climbed $17,000 from $58,000 to $75,192; and
Database administrators, who jumped nearly $11,000 from $76,436 to $87,000.
In the broader categories (fig. 2), several even more substantial jumps were seen over the last two years.
The average for those in systems analysis went from $41,938 in 2015 to $74,664 in 2017, a gain of more than $32,000;
Applications and development staff saw an increase of $22,000, from $57,256 in 2015 to $79,650 in 2017;
Web/digital media staff rose about $19,000, from $58,633 to $77,667; and
Database/business intelligence staff rose almost $15,000, from $76,436 in 2015 to $91,333 in 2017.
Respondents from the smallest schools or systems (0–499 students) had the lowest overall weighted average salary,
at $59,456 ($58,874 at small private schools, $59,731 at small public schools). Employees at the largest schools (3,000 or more students) had the highest weighted average salary: $79,552 ($77,742 private, $80,300 public).
Elementary schools had the lowest salaries on average — $60,161 for tech pros in public elementary schools (excluding teachers) and $52,700 in private elementary schools. The average for public secondary schools was $62,604
and, for private secondary schools, $62,926. Those at public combined elementary came in at an average of $73,225. Private combined schools came in at an average tech salary of $70,206, excluding teachers.
Job Satisfaction
Technology professionals in education are, for the most part, quite satisfied
with their jobs. About 84 percent plan
to stay in their current position in the coming year (fig. 7), with just 16 percent expecting to leave their current employer. That’s not terribly surprising, given that a majority of respondents have been with their present employer for 11 or more years, with a full 20 percent at 21-plus years (fig. 4).
Overall, more than three-quarters (77 percent) are satisfied or very satisfied
in their jobs (fig. 9), with just 9 percent unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.
So what do tech pros like the most? Co-workers received the highest
satisfaction rating, at 80 percent either satisfied or very satisfied;
Physical comfort came in second at about 79 percent;
Commute came in at a 71 percent
8 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018