[Linux-aus] Salary Survey

[Morgan Tocker]

> I think that one thing to be wary of, if it is connected to MemberDB, is
> the potential for loss of anonymity of people who would supply the
> information, which could be a disincentive to participate.

I believe that it must be anonymous.  Otherwise either less people
will respond, or some might even not tell the truth :-)

> For such a survey, possible questions could include:
> 1. Highest level of computing qualification obtained/ partially
>     completed
> 2. Level of computing qualification currently being undertaken

There's a risk here that we won't have enough data to predict trends. 
There is the difference between TAFE, uni, self-learned and industry
certification.

> 3. Employed or Self-employed/contractor

I'm not sure how it would work for the difference between
employed/self employed/contract.  Self employed is different, but
perhaps we could do the loose maths to convert contract back to
employed.


> 4. Current salary/annual gross income (to include
>     contractors/self-employed)

Hays has their own caveats here that are quite workable also.  It's
the "cash price" I believe, super and perks like laptops aren't
included.

> 5. Proportion of current working hours spent working with open source
>     software
> 6. Has/is proportion of working hours spent with open source software,
>     increasing or decreasing?
> 7. Computing/professional organisations of which you are currently a
>     member

I'm not sure entirely of the direct relation of professional
membership to salary (it could be a long bow to try and gather trends
from this, but I'd definitely be keen to see).  The challenge would be
if we can get enough data to accurately gauge this.

> 
> With 1 and 2 including both academic (university/TAFE, etc)
> qualifications and industry certifications, both open source and
> otherwise.
> 
> I think that a survey that included the above information, could provide
> an interesting snapshot.

It would be interesting to see how many people you would need to
survey.  I'm not sure where I read it, but I thought Hays said they
surveyed 1300 people?

Cheers,
Morgan