[Linux-aus] Salary Survey

[Bret Busby]

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005, Morgan Tocker wrote:

> 
>> What is the average earnings of people doing what I am doing?  Shit, why I
>> am I being paid 3 standard deviations below what I should be
>> paid???!one!1
>
> I think this sums it up well for me.  I had a chat to some of my peers
> at work about the Hays survey a while back.  We thought that it was
> inflated because they were trying to encourage people to jump ship and
> look for new jobs ;-)
>
> Anyhow, a while back I printed out the survey and highlighted the
> position(s) which best matched my role as I went for my review. It
> went something like "This is the role I am fulfilling.  This seems to
> be the industry rate.  I'm happy today and I like working here, but to
> stop the temptations of jumping down the track, how about we talk a
> little".
>
> I guess in truthfulness many of us don't know how much we should ask
> for because we don't know what we should be (it's hard to est. your
> own value to a company).  I'm really enthusiastic that LA can put
> together some good stats and there will be enough transparency that I
> won't be suspicious of some of the figures like in Hays.
>
> $0.02
>
>

I think that this goes to the principle embodied in my signature quote.

I had understood that the purpose of such a survey to be conducted, 
would be to provide a snapshot of people's incomes in the IT industry, 
not to provide an assessment of what people "should" be being paid.

There is also another pertinent question to be included in such a 
survey, which would have a significant bearing on the results, and that 
is, "In which state and city are you living and working (or, in which 
postcode do you do most of your work or are you employed most of the 
time)?".