InformationWeek

August 18, 1997

Benchmark Salary For CIOs Hits $300,000

Tech execs at larger companies take home more money

he going rate for CIO salaries has reached about $300,000, according to Positive Support Review Inc., an IT management consulting firm in Santa Monica, Calif.

That benchmark figure represents "compensation levels at which individuals are exposed to normal forces of the marketplace for similar job functions and responsibilities," according to a new study by PSR. Translation: $300,000 is the salary level most likely to be considered satisfactory by prospective CIOs, and the level at which there is unlikely to be a significantly higher or lower offer from another firm for a similar position, says Tomislav Urban, a Positive Support Review consultant who worked on the study.

Of course, that $300,000 benchma rk varies according to employer, city, and company size, says Urban. For instance, for top IS positions at larger companies-those with revenue of at least $500 million-the benchmark is closer to $309,000. For CIOs at midsize companies with less than $500 million in revenue, it's about $265,000.

Salaries for CIOs at large companies rose 11% from last year, while CIO compensation at midsize firms increased about 9%.

Geographically, the range also differs. For example, in New York, the benchmark salary paid to CIOs at large companies is about $380,000. The comparative figure in Memphis, Tenn., is about $167,000.

The 1997 midyear study was based on data Positive Support Review compiled and analyzed from a survey of 263 companies in the Southern California area. That data was then combined with some third-party and Internet research to determine salaries in other areas of the country, says Urban. Salaries were adjusted for cost-of-living and other factors in these other cities.

Stephen Mader, man aging director at the Boston office of Christian & Timbers, a national IT executive search firm in Cleveland, agrees that the $300,000 salary figure for CIOs sounds "real world," particularly for companies in the $500 million revenue range. Industry also influences CIO compensation, he says. "Financial services pay more than manufacturers because the IT is more complex and the dependency is greater," Mader says.

Non-cash CIO compensation perks, such as stock options are becoming popular again, says Urban. Those kinds of perks for CIOs were common for several years but appeared to dwindle somewhat in popularity over the last few years or so, says Urban. Stock options, for example, now contribute about 14% of supplemental income to CIOs' base compensation at large companies, he says-up from about 9% last year.

Web Rules
The study also revealed that when it comes to midlevel and staff positions within an IS organization, Internet-related skills are fetching the highest salaries. The most high ly compensated Internet experts are those classified as Web analysts and Webmasters.

The study defined Web analysts as those who oversee the part of a company's WAN operations related to the enterprise connection to the Internet, including protocols and software used for intranet communications. Salaries for Web analysts at large companies range from $80,000 to $120,000, while their peers at midsize companies are fetching up to about $95,000.

Webmasters, defined as people who oversee the technical management of a Web site, enjoy salaries at large companies as high as $122,000. The same positions within midsize companies are being paid about $105,000.

"You see a lot of 20-something-year-olds making six-figures in these jobs," says Christian & Timbers' Mader. "The field is so new, demand is hot, and there's so few experienced people available."

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