Tech pay

Associated Press
Published February 4, 2005

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Technology industry salaries continued dropping last year, down 4.5 percent, but with a notable niche of gains: Those in the defense and government tech sectors, according to an annual salary survey of tech professionals.

The average tech field salary was $66,300 last year, $3,100 less than in 2003, according to the 2004 salary survey by Dice Inc., a New York-based online job recruiting company for tech professionals.

But instead of taking a pay cut, workers in government and defense tech sectors saw a 2.9 percent gain, to $66,500 in 2004. The financial industry continued to pay the most, at an average of $77,600 yearly.

Silicon Valley and New York continued to offer the best tech salaries, at $84,200 and $76,500 respectively. But Atlanta supplanted Boston as No. 3 on that list, with an average annual survey of $75,500, $200 more than Boston.

The results are from data collected from 23,000 Dice.com users last year.