US Tech pay booms
By Sandhya

Dice is a leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. It has had a successful track record in its 21 year existence. Dice has released a report on how American Tech professionals, despite all the outsourcing to India, enjoyed the largest annual salary growth in 3 years

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After two straight years of wages remaining nearly flat, tech professionals on average garnered salary increases of more than two percent, boosting their average annual wage to $81,327 from $79,384 in 2010.

A more considerable jump was noted in both size of average bonuses, up eight percent to $8,769, and the number of technology professionals receiving bonuses: 32 percent in 2011, compared with 29 percent in 2010 and 24 percent in 2009. The industries most likely to pay out bonuses: Telecom, Hardware, Banking, Utilities / Energy and Software.

In Silicon Valley, annual tech salaries topped six figures for the first time since the survey began about a decade ago. The highest in the nation, Silicon Valley’s annual salary of $104,195, increased five percent year/year. In addition, bonuses are both fatter and more frequent in Silicon Valley – with 38 percent of tech professionals receiving bonuses at an average of $12,450.

While the Valley’s resurgence is well documented, other tech markets did exceptionally well too. In fact, 12 of the top 20 cities for tech jobs had above average wage growth. The largest: Austin, Texas with a 13 percent jump in pay to average $89,419. Portland, Oregon showed an annual wage increase of 12 percent to $82,055; Houston saw seven percent growth ($89,307); and Washington D.C. experienced nearly six percent growth ($94,317).

Chicago and Seattle each garnered five percent increases in average tech salaries, Denver and Dallas/Ft. Worth managed four percent growth, while New York, Los Angeles and Raleigh, North Carolina each increased three percent.
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