The 1997 SANS System Administration and Security Salary Survey

Careers for information technology professionals

Dr. Dobb's Journal Spring 1998

By Alan Paller

System administrators and security professionals hold critical jobs in information technology. They ensure that computer systems are continuously operational, that data is protected from both accidental and malicious loss, that users have easy access to the right programs and file systems, and increasingly, that World Wide Web sites are created, maintained, and secured. Their skill, perseverance, patience, and creativity directly impact the productivity of dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of users in commercial, government, and educational organizations around the globe.

The salaries of system administrators and security professionals -- especially those of the more experienced, higher-paid professionals -- have been rising rapidly, due to a growing shortage of experienced system administrators. The average system administrator reported that her/his salary increased by nearly 14 percent from 1996 to 1997. Those who earn above-average salaries are enjoying greater increases than lower-paid individuals. But even the average increase is far higher than the average increase in salaries for all IT professionals.

The Fourth Annual SANS Salary Survey, conducted by the SANS Institute (a research and educational organization that provides technical education for security and systems management professionals), reflects data from more than 1600 system administrators and security professionals who work in government (nine percent), universities and other educational institutions (18 percent), system integration (14 percent), commercial business processing (31 percent), and commercial research and engineering organizations (28 percent) in the U.S. and around the world. In this article, I'll present a subset of the salary survey. (For more of the survey results, go to http://www.sans.org/. To obtain more information about the SANS Institute, e-mail me at sans@clark.net.) Highlights of the salary survey include:

• The vast majority (86 percent) of all system administrators and security professionals earn between $30,000 and $80,000. Sixty-one percent of system administrators and security professionals report 1997 salaries between $40,000 and $70,000 (see Table 1). The average salary is $57,346.
• The average increase from 1996 to 1997 is 14.1 percent. System administrators and security professionals with substantially above-average salaries (over $70,000) reported receiving percentage raises that were higher than the raises received by lower-paid system administrators and security professionals.
• System integrators pay top salaries, followed by commercial organizations. Government and university salaries remained much lower than salaries in other organizations.
• California emerged again as the leader in the salary race, closely followed by the U.S. Northeast (NY, MD, CD, VT, PA, DE, ME, NH, CT, NJ, MA, RI) with the U.S. Southwest (NV, AZ, UT, NM, CO), U.S. South-central (TX, OK, AK, LA, MS, AL), and Asia following. Canada and Europe lag behind. Other areas surveyed include the U.S. Midwest (MI, IL, IN, OH, ND, SD, NE, KS, MO, WI, IA, MN), the U.S. Northwest (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY), and U.S. Southeast (KY, TN, VA, WV, FL, GA, SC, NC). (See Table 2.)
• The gender pay gap is still present, but continues to decline. The gap is smallest in government and largest in commercial organizations engaged in business processing.
• On average, those with master's degrees made salaries slightly above all other categories. (See Table 3.)
• The higher salaries for those with less than a year of experience reflect the enormous demand for experienced people. Companies are recruiting new system administrators and security professionals from other areas of information system, and are paying them well. The remainder of the data shows that each of the first few years of experiences account for approximately $3000 in added salary.
• Seventy-three percent of system administrators and security professionals are responsible for managing more than three types of UNIX and Windows NT systems. There is little pay benefit to those who support more types.
• System administrators and security professionals who manage Solaris, HP-UX, and AT&T UNIX systems report higher than average salaries. Those who manage Novell Netware systems report lower than average salaries.
• Consultants continue to make more money than salaried system administrators and security professionals.
• Several new reasons were reported for winning large salary increases, but the traditional reasons -- switching employers, asking for a raise, and using comparative salary data -- all showed up often.
• This year, for the first time, SANS asked system administrators and security professionals what their employers must do to keep qualified staff. The most commonly reported responses include: providing for training and technical conferences; paying fairly; recognizing employee contributions and ideas; and providing appropriate tools.

DDJ