Average wage: how is this determined?

Dannyboy83

How is the average industrial wage determined?

The average industrial wage for 2008 was said to be E35k per year.

Of my many friends with whom I attended university, not one of them earns this much money after 5 years in the IT industry.

asdasd

like any other average the average wage is the sum of all wage earners divided by the number of workers.

deadhead13

"The Earnings,Hours and Employment Cost survey" - Industrial firms with 3 or more employees are surveyed and the average calculated. Excluding the public and non-industrail sectors, management, technical and clerical staff.

nesf

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

How is the average industrial wage determined?

The average industrial wage for 2008 was said to be E35k per year.

Of my many friends with whom I attended university, not one of them earns this much money after 5 years in the IT industry.

It's the average not the median wage so it's higher than what the average guy gets paid because of the small number of people earning silly money at the top.

Of the people I knew through college who've been out of it for years, they'd be around the 35K mark. I know a few earning 60K+ or were up until this year, and a few scraping by on 20-25K a year. I know a few in IT on more than 35K but they've all more than 5 years (some closer to 10) years under their belts.

asdasd

I know a few in IT on more than 35K but they've all more than 5 years (some closer to 10) years under their belts.

there are clearly IT jobs going for 70K. They are not going to someone with 5 year experience, and in general you need a niche. The average wage for people in their mid-twenties is going to be lower than people with more experience, of course.

ixoy

The mean wage in IT would be interesting as there's an illusion that it's well paid - mostly as a result of the dot-com years. It's the sort of idea that gets propagated by regular reports about IT shortages and recent events, such as the economic turmoil. In my experience however, it's not that well paid (nor that badly paid either) and people should only be getting into it if they've some sort of passion or interest.

asdasd

After the boom years of the dot com the IT salary stayed nominally the same for about a decade. It is rising in the US now though, and at a clip, I heard 15% last year. The reason why it might do wel in this recession is the governments - well UK and US - will try and spend their way out by buing jobs i.e. new green technology etc, which will need engineers and IT. This will not be outsourced - whats the point in getting Indians to do jobs that are designed to pull people out of a recession. The low wages of recent years have deterred people and that would take 4 years to fix so I think the relative position of IT wil improve significantly.

IT is well paid in the margins - you need anich, not just C#.

gurramok

And average or mean wage will go down this year with an economy set to contract reputedly by 5%.
The UK have a mean wage available for the total workforce, somehow the CSO cannot calculate it for here

nesf

gurramok wrote: »

And average or mean wage will go down this year with an economy set to contract reputedly by 5%.
The UK have a mean wage available for the total workforce, somehow the CSO cannot calculate it for here

The mean wage is the same as the average wage, by definition...