By Timothy Prickett Morgan

For most of the year, salaries for AS/400 managers and programmers in the United States had pretty much flattened out after several years of growth at rates that were two or three times the annual cost of living raises that are typically geared to the inflation rate in the US. But according to recent surveys of AS/400 salaries performed by Nate Viall & Associates, AS/400 salaries have rebounded sharply in the fall, reaching record highs in a number of different categories. If you are a data processing or human resources manager at an AS/400 shop and you thought your staffing troubles were over, think again. According to the latest figures, average salaries for AS/400 managers have risen above $70,000 for the first time, up 2.8% since last year. Salaries for MIS directors and VPs of data processing have increased by 5% to 7%, with average salaries for first level managers up only between 1% and 4%. However, average pay for these managers is above $60,000, a level they hadn’t reached until January 1997 and which they haven’t been at for the past three quarters. The average pay for the top 20% of AS/400 managers is getting up there, too. The top 20% of VPs and CIOs make close to $170,000 a year in salary and bonuses, directors of MIS $123,000 and various levels of data processing, supervisor and tech support managers are raking in between $80,000 and $90,000 a year. Pay levels are highest for contract managers and software houses, $90,500 on average for all classes of managers, and lowest for $55,300 for government, education and non-profit organizations.

Low pay for programmers

Programmer salaries on the whole have risen by 6.4% to $46,700, almost twice the growth rate of the prior two quarters. As with managers, the low pay for programmers among government, education and non-profit organizations is leading to turnover rates as high as 50% companies from other industries raid these organizations for employees. The consequence of the low pay and the raiding is that these organizations now also lag in programming experience. Not a good thing when the Y2K bug is expected to hit state and local governments pretty hard if they don’t get their acts together. Salaries for programmers with 7 to 9 years of experience rose by 10.9% to an average just shy of $50,000, and those with experience of 4 to 6 years increased by 7.9% to $48,600. Those with 9 or more years of programming experience averaged $52,600, a significant amount considering that $50,000 is the general starting price for middle managers in America and there is a considerable amount of pressure to not pay technical staff, no matter how rare or smart, more than managers. Nonetheless, plenty do. Among the top fifth of programmers, average salaries for all programmers come in at $66,000, with the most experienced averaging $72,000 and S/36 RPG II programmers getting about half that. There is a considerable pay benefit to being close to a large urban center for AS/400 programmers. Those in rural cities get an average of $42,300, those in bigger cities get about $47,800 and those in urban centers like New York or Los Angeles get $56,400 on average. The most important thing is that this is not a new plateau for programmer pay at AS/400 sites. AS/400 managers and their programmers alike expect 5% to 8% pay increases among all types of programmers during 1999. One of the ways that will happen is through bonuses, which historically have been small or non-existent at AS/400 sites. A little more than a quarter of AS/400 programmers surveyed by Nate Viall & Associates reported that they now get bonuses, which average $3,229. During 1995, only 9% of AS/400 programmers got bonuses. Retention bonuses due to millennium bug projects are running as high as a full year’s pay at some shops, but the more typical high bonuses range in the 20% to 30% of a year’s pay. That said, only about 15% of companies have implemented Y2K retention bonuses. Nearly half of all AS/400 managers say they get bonuses, with an average just under $8,000. Two-thirds of directors and VPs get bonuses of just under $14,000.