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From: et@tornado.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Sys admin salary survey
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.032501.6777@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 91 03:25:01 GMT
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In article <9101302243.AA00495@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> jlol@ee.byu.edu writes:
>Not too long ago there was a request for information by someone who
>was compiling a salary survey for system administrators around the
>country.  I can't remember which group it was in but I've been
>assigned to find the results of such a survey.

I started the survey about a month ago, and got quite a few responses since
that time (about 30-40).  However, there isn't a summary.  How is that, you
might ask?

The account I'm using is on UC Berkeley's Open Computing Facility (OCF)
cluster of computers.  They decided to do an OS upgrade over winter break
(over the last month).  In the process of upgrading, they removed all the
accounts from disk to tape.  And in the process of restoring the accounts,
they deleted one of the backup tapes that had accounts for two of the
machines.  Unfortunately, my account was on one of those machines.

Bottom line: I have no files, no mail, nothing.  Needless to say, I was
extremely PO'd.. however, since the account was provided free in the first
place and the OCF gets no money from the university to do things like
backups, I suppose "I got what I paid for"--i.e. nothing.

However, from the responses I received, I can recall some items which seem
to affect salary the most:

  * Geography: salaries in urban areas, especially high-tech areas, were
         higher than those of less-urbanized/less-tech areas

  * Education/Professional: people working for universities and other
	 educational institutions were paid less than those working in
	 the industry or as professionals

  * Degree of Management: people who did the dirty work themselves
	 were generally paid less than people who supervised the people
	 who did the dirty work

  * Number of machines supervised: more machines usually == more $$$;
	 see next item though

  * Type(s) of machines supervised: people who supervised several different
	 kinds of machines/architectures were usually paid more than those
	 with just one type of machine, especially if different architectures
	 were networked

  * Type/Number of Users: more users usually == more $$$; however, this
	 varies depending on how technically inclined the users are.  If
	 the users only know how to log in and read their mail and use the
	 word processor, and anything else is "Unix" which has to be
	 referred to the sysadmin, then the sysadmin usually got more $$$

  * Specialization: if the sysadmin is expected to know everything about
	 everything (i.e. all aspects of all applications, programming,
	 networking, hardware, etc., etc.) then salary is higher than if
	 they work in a specialized area (X, C, networking, etc.)

There may have been other factors I don't remember offhand, but of course,
I have nothing to refer to anymore.  If you would like a description/salary
of the sysadmin job at the firm I work, please send me your address again
and I'll send you one.

I'd like to thank everyone who participated and I hope that if another
survey is conducted in the future that the turnout is just as good or better
than what I received.  Thanks again.

-- 
"I'd rather be no one than someone with no one to love" |    Eric Thompson
                                     --Stone Roses      | et@ocf.berkeley.edu