IT Pros Saw Paychecks Shrink In 1QIT Pros Saw Paychecks Shrink In 1Q

Is your pocket feeling a bit light these days? While rising gas and food prices are eating a bigger chunk of personal budgets these days, paychecks for IT professionals are shrinking, too.

Average tech wages dropped in the first three months of 2008, compared with the same period last year, according to a new report by IT staffing firm Yoh.

Tech wages hit a low point in February, falling 2.7% compared with February 2007.

According to the Yoh Index of Technology Wages, which compares pay trends to a base score of 100 established in January 2001, the index in February dropped to a score of 110.55, down 2.7% from a score of 115.96 in February 2007. In terms of dollars and cents, that translates to an average hourly pay of $30.84 for IT professionals in February, down from $31.80 in February 2007.

For January, the index decline was 0.5%, hitting a score of 111.58, down from 115.28 in January 2007. In January, the average hourly wage was $31.19, compared with $31.35 in January 2007.

Wages in March were still down from a year ago, although not as far down as February. In March, the wage index dipped 0.8% to 112.49 versus the score of 112.81 in March 2007. Average hourly wages in March were $31.41, down from $31.72 in March 2007.

The drop in wages reflects what's been going on in the larger economy, said Jim Lanzalotto, Yoh's VP of strategy and marketing, in an interview. "The first quarter mirrors the overall economy," he said. Because the March drop wasn't as steep as February, Lanzalotto said he's optimistic that wages have already hit "a low-water point" and will rebound soon. "The fall was shallow, rather than deep."

Also, despite the overall decline of average hourly tech wages, there are hot spots where talent demand continues to be strong, especially for skills in SAP, wireless, security, and "jobs close to the customer," he said. Among the skills less in demand by Yoh clients are those related to "noncore projects," like infrastructure, "nice-to-have app dev," and work that can be offshored, he said.

Tech pay increases began petering out at the end of last year, said Lanzalotto. In the final months of 2007, tech professionals still were getting pay hikes, but much smaller than earlier in the year.

In 2007, tech pay hit a "high-water mark" for the year in October, averaging about $32.29 an hour and climbing to a score of 115.96 in the Yoh index, said Lanzalotto.

A recent information Research salary survey of more than 9,000 IT professionals revealed a similar downward trend in tech wages this year.