Bubble has burst, but IT staff are still premium earners

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Those with IT skills are still enjoying a wage premium over others, says the New Zealand 2004 Remuneration Report.

Compiled by Auckland's Strategic Pay, a remuneration and performance management consultancy, the report says higher bonuses are increasingly being paid to keep staff.

The report surveyed nearly 200 organisations from industries including manufacturing, distribution, retail, finance and the public sector.

John McGill, a senior consultant at Strategic Pay and the report's author, said the data confirmed 2 to 3 per cent overall wage rises in the last twelve months.

The modest increases were not surprising considering the 16-year low in unemployment rates of 4.3 per cent, the fourth-lowest in the OECD, he said.

But the most significant findings were the trends, which suggested underlying wage pressures.

John Nevill, principal of recruiter Gaulter Russell, said the IT industry still paid well, but that might not last as IT-trained graduates flooded the market.

"Potentially, those people with biotech skills might be the next area of development," he said.

Gary Reid, Auckland manager at Neil Andrews, an IT headhunting firm, said people with specific skills could command good salaries but the bubble had burst for the really high salaries.

There was less money to be thrown into higher wages, but some contractors could still command up to $110 an hour.

His company has just placed a person with good skills in a one-year contract worth about $200,000.

"There are still a few of those positions around," said Reid.

Last year, Java skills were in hot demand, whereas this year it was Microsoft in the .Net area.

Good software developers and network experts could earn between $70,000 and 90,000 a year, or more if they had exceptional skills in specific areas, he said.

Many companies looking for IT sales staff offered packages worth well over $150,000, with the potential to double that if they were successful.

McGill said the Government seemed to be moving cautiously with its five-year strategy for the employment taskforce to address pay issues in the public sector.

Many employers felt it was ignoring the realities of the labour market.

Different industries paid differently. For example, the finance sector paid more than the public sector, and some jobs such as IT functions paid more than other jobs.