Top Region: Federal Spending Boosts Washington Salaries

Maybe it's not a big surprise that paychecks in the Washington, D.C., area are rising, since it's home to the one industry--government--that's pouring money into IT. But in a year that has most big metro areas with flat or even falling business-technology salaries, the increase in the Washington-Baltimore region is an eye-popper: a 13% jump in the median base salary for staffers, for a $76,000 average salary that puts it atop metro areas, according to the InformationWeek Research 2003 National IT Salary Survey.

Though government salaries are generally lower than those in the private sector, the government does pay a premium--as much as 25% of the usual government base salary--for workers with specialized skills, including those held by many IT workers. But more important, Washington and its suburbs host hundreds of the outsourcing and systems-integration firms that employ thousands of people who staff government IT projects. Washington surrenders its No. 1 spot for staffers when bonuses are thrown in, which brings San Francisco's $84,000 median pay above Washington's $80,000.

Many private-sector jobs tied to government require skills such as cybersecurity, which can command top dollar, and also security clearances from agencies such as the Department of Defense. The department accounts for about half of government IT spending.

For managers, Washington trails San Francisco and New York in base pay and total compensation. Average salaries for IT managers in the Washington area also increased by nearly 8% to $97,000 in the past year. But managers in the San Francisco Bay region have an average yearly salary of $110,000, a 2.8% increase from 2002.

A year ago, Washington-Baltimore ranked fourth among metropolitan areas in managers' base pay and ninth in overall IT pay.

Photograph by Pete McArthur

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