Hong Kong: IT Salary Benchmark 2012
ZDNet Asia conducted an online survey between March 2011 and March 2012 to look into the pay packages Asia's IT professionals were receiving and the market trends.
The study polled a total of 945 respondents from various job functions varying from administrators and support to IT management and systems development, and across seven Asian economies: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Hong Kong contributed 40 participants to the survey. Of these, three of them had less than 5 years of working experience in the industry and 11 had between 5 and 10 years, while 26 had more than 10 years' worth of experience.
In terms of pay, those in IT management within the country's legal and finance sector head the top earners list with an average annual salary of more than HK$1.2 million, beating out project management executives in the same sector who earn just over HK$1 million a year.
In the following charts, HKD denotes the Hong Kong dollar.
Average annual salary by IT skills and years of experience (in HKD)
IT skills | Years of Experience | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Less than 5 years | 5-10 years | More than 10 years | |
| Desktops/Software | 152,000 | 255,000 | 612,778 |
| Application Development | 160,000 | - | 713,444 |
| Web Services | 144,000 | - | - |
| System Administration | 144,000 | 241,250 | 725,714 |
| Operating Systems | 144,000 | 241,250 | - |
| Servers/Networking | 144000 | 325,000 | - |
| IT Outsourcing | - | 353,000 | - |
| IT Security | - | 575,000 | - |
| Enterprise Applications | - | 487,500 | 687,500 |
| Consulting/Business Services | - | 425,000 | 811,667 |
| Infrastructure Management | - | 412,500 | 726,857 |
| Web Development | - | 362,500 | - |
| Database Management | - | - | 733,889 |
| Operating Systems | - | - | 584,667 |
| Storage | - | - | 551,333 |
Average annual salary by job function and years of experience (in HKD)
Job Function | Years of Experience | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Less than 5 years | 5-10 years | More than 10 years | |
| IT Management | - | 325,000 | 872,800 |
| Project Management | - | 418,000 | 733,714 |
| Systems Development | 195,000 | 400,000 | 357,000 |
| Communications | - | 180,000 | 650,000 |
| Support | 144,000 | 290,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Administration | - | - | - |
| Other IT Professionals | - | - | - |
| Overall | 178,000 | 325,000 | 765,875 |
Average annual salary of Top 10 IT skills (in HKD)
Ranking | % of Respondents | IT Skills | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 51.9 | Desktops/ Software | 470,286 |
| #2 | 44.4 | System Administration | 515,750 |
| #3 | 40.7 | Application Development | 634,636 |
| #4 | 40.7 | Servers/ Networking | 557,000 |
| #5 | 40.7 | Operating Systems | 419,727 |
| #6 | 37.0 | Database Management | 700,500 |
| #7 | 33.3 | Infrastructure Management | 657,000 |
| #8 | 29.6 | Consulting/ Business Services | 715,000 |
| #9 | 29.6 | Enterprise Applications | 637,500 |
| #10 | 29.6 | IT Outsourcing | 507,875 |
Average annual salary by job function and industry (in HKD)
Job Function | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IT, Web & Telecom | Government,
Education & Health | Legal & Finance | Media,
Marketing & Sales (non-IT) | Manufacturing,
Services & Others (non-IT) | Overall | |
| IT Management | 890,000 | 469,000 | 1,266,667 | - | 548,333 | 823,000 |
| Project Management | 596,000 | - | 1,075,000 | 400,000 | 366,667 | 602,167 |
| Systems Development | - | 230,000 | - | - | 305,667 | 286,750 |
| Communications | - | - | 650,000 | 180,000 | 415,000 | |
| Support | 1,000,000 | 144,000 | 290,000 | - | - | 478,000 |
| Administration | 600,000 | 555,000 | 800,000 | - | 145,000 | 466,667 |
| Other IT Professionals | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Overall | 713,273 | 403,667 | 961,250 | 400,000 | 344,333 | 591,842 |