According to the recently released Cybercities 2008 report, Boston is the fourth largest city in the U.S. in terms of technology employment. The top four cities are as follows:
- New York Metro Area
- Washington, DC
- San Jose/Silicon Valley
- Boston
The Boston metro area employed approximately 192,000 tech workers in 2006, according to the report. The average tech worker in Boston earned approximately $95,000.
IT Salary Survey | 2008
More recent salary data can be found in the annual InformationWeek U.S. IT Salary Survey. The average information technology (IT) manager earns $103,000 (bonus included). Median base pay according to the survey:
- staff | $73,000 (+ $3,000 bonus)
- managers | $96,000 (+ $7,000 bonus)
Half of staffers and two-thirds of managers receive bonuses.
Median total compensation for staff with the "programmer" title comes in at $66,000.
Critical Job Skills
Half of IT staffers identify the following as their most critical job skills:
- aligning business and technology goals
- interacting with customers
- analyzing data
For IT managers the critical skills are as follows:
- business technology alignment
- the ability to communicate and collaborate with internal stakeholders
- the ability to communicate and collaborate with customers
Salary by Job Function
"There are some jobs that are seeing an uptick in salary, particularly those with Web design and development roles," according to an excerpt of the full report that is available for purchase.
None-the-less, "Web content management" ranks as one of the lowest paid IT management functions. Here are the highest and lowest paid management functions:Highest Paid Management Functions:
- Data mining/data warehouse | $130,000
- Web infrastructure | $121,000
- Wireless infrastructure | $121,000
Lowest Paid Management Functions:
- Training | $79,000
- Web content development | $75,000
- Help desk/IT support | $72,000
This data is reported in an annual survey of more than 9,000 workers across 20 IT job functions and management positions. An InformationWeek article provides additional insight. A slide show is also available summarizing the results.
Bottom Line
Based on this compensation survey the surest route to a six-figure paycheck in the technology marketplace is to improve in the following four areas:
- acquire additional technical skills, especially data analysis
- improve communication & collaboration skills
- develop business skills
- assume managerial responsibilities
By helping a business enterprise improve it's bottom line you can help improve yours.
The third 
