4 Trends in Banking IT Employment
1. Banking IT Salaries: Strong and Growing
Overall, the median base salary for banking IT staff in 2014 increased approximately 4.8% over 2013 levels, according to the 2014 InformationWeek Analytics Salary Survey. Median base salaries for banking IT managers remained constant since 2013 at $120,000. Total compensation -- including bonuses and other direct cash payments received over the past 12 months -- rose for both groups. For staff, the median comprehensive compensation jumped 3 percent from 2013 to $104,000 while managers’ median total compensation jumped 4.2 percent to $140,000 from last year.
2. Gender Gap Persists
A gender gap still exists in the banking industry, when it comes to IT management and staff compensation. Median annual base salaries continue to be more than 10% less for women on both levels than they are for men. In fact, median base salaries for female staff in 2014 were 13% lower than their male counterparts. Similarly, male managers reported their base salaries as substantially higher than their female peers, a median of 12.5% difference.
There’s good news and bad news for female banking IT employees. The bad news is that the base salary differential increased this year over 2013, when the median base salary for male staff members was 10.6% higher than for female staffers. But the good news is that the difference in median base salary for male IT managers and their female counterparts diminished since 2013, when male managers made 17.1% more in median base salary than managers who were women.
3. Improved Satisfaction With the Job
There’s more good news on the banking IT salary front this year: More employees on all levels seem happier in their current positions. In 2014, fewer managers and staff reported dissatisfaction with their total compensation package this year than in 2013, although the difference between the two years is slight. This year, only 16% of banking IT staff reported dissatisfaction with their total compensation, compared with 17% in 2013. Similarly, 15% of managers said they were dissatisfied with their total compensation in 2014, decreasing 2% from 2013.
For the most part, banking IT staff and managers seem to be either satisfied -- or at least not dissatisfied -- with their jobs. Overall, 87% of banking IT staff members and managers reported that they were very satisfied, satisfied, or neutral about all aspects of their jobs, including compensation, benefits, and other aspects of their employment relationships this year.
4. IT Pros Want Training
2014 InformationWeek Analytics Salary Survey participants indicated that their careers could benefit from training. More than two-thirds (71%) of banking IT staff and more than half (55%) of banking IT managers said that technology-specific training would be valuable in developing their careers. Survey participants also said that certification courses would be helpful in developing their careers, with 45% of staff and 30% of managers indicating this option.
However, at a time when IT budgets are still constrained and banks have to do more with fewer resources, training managers and staff isn’t always a priority. Despite a majority of both groups indicating that they’d benefit from additional training, just more than half (53%) of staff and 61% of managers attended company-paid training over the past year. Only 16% of staff and 18% of managers attended company-paid certification courses in the past 12 months.
Peggy Bresnick Kendler has been a writer for 30 years. She has worked as an editor, publicist and school district technology coordinator. During the past decade, Bresnick Kendler has worked for UBM TechWeb on special financialservices technology-centered ... View Full Bio