China: IT Salary Benchmark 2009
ZDNet Asia conducted an online survey between October 2008 and May 2009, to gain insights into salary trends and IT workforce across Asia.
| Respondent Profile by Job Function | |
| IT Management | 112 |
| Project Management | 111 |
| Systems Development | 296 |
| Communications | 87 |
| Support | 50 |
| Administration | 43 |
| Other IT Professionals | 98 |
| TOTAL (including part-time/contract) | 797 |
The study polled a total of 21,627 respondents from various sectors including government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, and across eight Asian economies: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Some 779 respondents were from China, holding full-time positions with job functions that cut across several areas such as systems development, project management and support.
In addition, 11 respondents from the economy were either contract or independent consultants, while another seven held part-time positions, working fewer than 28 hours a week.
Respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the legal and finance industry were the highest paid among their peers in China, pulling in an average salary of 244,000 yuan a year.
In the following charts, RMB denotes the Chinese yuan.
Average Annual Salary by Job Function and Industry (RMB)
| Job Function | Industry | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT, Web & Telecom | Goverment, Education & Health | Legal & Finance | Media, Marketing & Sales (non-IT) | Manufacturing, Services & Others (non-IT) | OVERALL | ||
| IT Management | 174,173 | 180,000 | 244,000 | 200,545 | 144,275 | 171,657 | |
| Project Management | 141,839 | 192,000 | 163,667 | 141,667 | 165,223 | 147,521 | |
| Systems Development | 78,079 | 74,220 | 108,000 | 55,414 | 122,850 | 80,609 | |
| Communications | 86,675 | 118,333 | 130,000 | 72,000 | 28,517 | 80,429 | |
| Support | 69,222 | 76,000 | 40,000 | 21,600 | 60,833 | 67,180 | |
| Administration | 98,395 | 90,000 | 175,000 | 49,000 | 85,000 | 93,849 | |
| Other IT Professionals | 49,431 | 30,250 | 60,000 | 54,000 | 46,667 | 48,712 | |
| OVERALL | 93,064 | 112,063 | 151,286 | 116,015 | 112,390 | 98,747 | |
Average Annual Salary by IT Skills and Years of Experience (RMB)
| IT Skills | Years of Experience | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 years | 5-10 years | More than 10 years | |
| Application Development | 69,755 | 134,448 | 164,780 |
| Web Development | 58,947 | 115,662 | - |
| Servers/Networking | 56,945 | 135,871 | 186,972 |
| Enterprise Applications | 65,134 | 135,207 | 180,841 |
| Operating Systems | 63,475 | 127,242 | 178,946 |
| Web Services | 52,433 | - | - |
| Desktops/Software | 62,756 | 127,195 | 191,438 |
| IT Outsourcing | 66,322 | 131,887 | 179,533 |
| Database Management | 61,099 | 138,549 | 177,229 |
| Systems Administration | 58,648 | 139,434 | 172,316 |
| IT Security | - | 134,917 | - |
| Infrastructure Management | - | - | 196,656 |
| Consulting/Business Services | - | - | 203,483 |
Average Annual Salary by Job Function and Years of Experience (RMB)
| Job Function | Years of Experience | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 years | 5-10 years | More than 10 years | |
| IT Management | 130,560 | 157,129 | 193,957 |
| Project Management | 104,722 | 163,723 | 177,056 |
| Systems Development | 63,661 | 117,411 | 180,000 |
| Communications | 55,019 | 104,016 | 366,667 |
| Support | 52,230 | 94,862 | 111,667 |
| Administration | 53,098 | 132,294 | 98,750 |
| Other IT Professionals | 44,745 | 64,789 | - |
| OVERALL | 61,870 | 131,351 | 183,422 |
Average Annual Salary of Top 10 Most Popular IT Skills (RMB)
| Rank | % of Respondents | IT Skills | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 48.7 | Application Development | 107,421 |
| 2 | 30.8 | Servers/Networking | 108,677 |
| 3 | 30.4 | Enterprise Applications | 115,295 |
| 4 | 29.5 | Web Development | 86,568 |
| 5 | 29.4 | Operating Systems | 108,864 |
| 6 | 25.9 | Database Management | 112,660 |
| 7 | 25.7 | Desktops/Software | 108,476 |
| 8 | 24.4 | Systems Administration | 118,798 |
| 9 | 24.3 | IT Outsourcing | 108,575 |
| 10 | 21.4 | Web Services | 89,104 |