7/16/2003 -- According to the "2003 IT Market Compensation Study" released earlier this month by people3, a Gartner Inc. company, the average base salaries for IT professionals in the U.S. rose 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2003. The median base salary rose 4.2 percent.

These figures were culled by comparing the results of this year's study -- based on data submitted in March by 151 organizations representing 43,900 IT employees -- with that of 2002, people3 said.

According to the study's executive summary, the average base salary for IT professionals surveyed in 2003 was $68,600 (only those whose data was also included in the 2002 and 2001 studies is included in this average). Employers in Western and Northeast states pay 6 to 7 percent above the national median, with those in Southern states paying 4 to 5 percent below, the study found.

Companies that currently outsource IT functions/skills "appear to pay lower salaries to their IT employees," the summary states. "We concluded that the outsourcing factor has the consistent effect, across the board, of driving pay levels down."

The study also looked at recruiting. According to people3, the skill that IT organizations report having the greatest difficulty in recruiting is Oracle administration, with PeopleSoft and Unix tying for second.

The most difficult-to-hire positions for IT organizations (in descending order) are database administrator, Internet/Web architect, network architect, network engineer and security analyst.

The annual study provides "incumbent-based" compensation data on base salary, total cash compensation, project milestone pay, other short-term incentives/bonuses, and other prevalent compensation practices regarding hot skill pay, variable pay and long-term incentives. It is available for purchase on Gartner's Web site here. -Becky Nagel