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Mon, Mar 19, 2007 10:12 EDT
How Extreme Are You?
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Posted by: Christopher Koch in Best Practices Topic: Personal ManagementBlog: Koch's IT Strategy
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I was stunned by our research for the State of the CIO showing that CIO salaries have actually declined $23,562 since 2002 (as measured in 2002 dollars). The average salary has basically remained stuck at about $185,000 ($134,180 for small companies and $281,900 for large companies).
Of course, we know that the demands on CIOs and IT generally have increased since 2002--Sarbox, phishing, spam, the explosion in mobile computing, just to name a few examples of the increasing number of distractions.
Doesn't IT deserve a raise? Sure, but no one's getting one. At least you're not alone. Average real income for salaried Americans has risen only slightly since 1983, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
So how do you get ahead? You work harder.
Americans worked an average of 1713 hours in 2005, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, versus 1735 hours in 1983. 22 hours less. Sounds good, right? Not when you factor in the productivity gains we've made since then, which would allow us to perform an hour's worth of 1983 work in much less time today. So you would think that we'd be making lots more money today than in 1983--or at least working fewer hours. Though our productivity gains do show up in lower prices on many goods--especially computers--the work-life balance isn't shifting.
Unless you live in Europe. There are countries that have taken those productivity gains and plowed them into reduced hours. The differences are stark. In Germany in 1983 for example, employees worked an average of 1698 hours. In 2005 they worked just 1437 hours, the lowest of any OECD country--a difference of more than 250 hours. In France, the drop has been almost as staggering--from 1758 hours in 1983 to 1546 in 2005.
And in case you think these countries are slackers, consider that France's productivity was slightly higher than ours in 2005, as were the economies of Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Ireland. And Germany wasn't far behind, just 9 percent lower than the U.S.
Of course, we know that many of these countries have a strong culture of unions that push for time off and there is much more government involvement in issues like the work week (with some mandatory reductions made to try to stimulate more employment). And these economies have their own problems, too, most notably low job growth, high taxes and higher
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Mon, Apr 2, 2007 16:41 EDT
I believe that focusing employees on the shared goals of the organization and giving them latitude to pursue stated goals goes a long way toward improving productivity. Many managers do not involve everyone in the process of improving the company through effective utilization of information systems; this is a crucial error and will cause many workers to lose interest in the common goals.
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Mon, Mar 19, 2007 14:37 EDT
Posted by: Anonymous Majority
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There is a difference between the amount of hours spent at work and the number of hours worked! In reality, I spend approximately 1/3 of my day in completely unproductive meetings and another 1/3 of my day in hallway/office conversations where the real decisions get made. The other 1/3 of my 9-10 hour day is spent getting real work done. It balances out to 5-6 hours of real work.
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Tue, Mar 20, 2007 9:18 EDT
Great post, Chris. I think you hit the nail on the head with your view on why Americans work so hard: to save their jobs so that they can pay for their health care, their homes, their kids' college tuitions, etc. I can't believe the Work-Life Policy researchers overlooked that simple reality, and I commend you for seeing through some of the more absurd reasons they proposed to explain Americans' work habits (e.g. feeding into the culture of reality TV.) As for the subject of CIO salaries, I wonder if their bonuses have grown? I wouldn't be surprised if they are getting bigger bonuses and those bonuses more than compensate for base salaries that has remained flat year over year. I know that bonuses awarded for achieving certain performance metrics can make up a large percentage of CIO salaries.
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Wed, Mar 21, 2007 5:32 EDT
Posted by: Anonymous
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I think it is just a perception that Americans work harder. Go and do a reality check in third world countries like India, CHina, Phili where all the work from US and other european countries gets outsourced.
You will be astonished to find the number of hours those poor souls work.
An average IT worker who DOES NOT get a fat pay package works for 60 hours a week, let alone the person with a fat paycheck.
Shruti Majithia
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Wed, Mar 21, 2007 5:33 EDT
Posted by: Shruti Majithia
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I think it is just a perception that Americans work harder. Go and do a reality check in third world countries like India, CHina, Phili where all the work from US and other european countries gets outsourced.
You will be astonished to find the number of hours those poor souls work.
An average IT worker who DOES NOT get a fat pay package works for 60 hours a week, let alone the person with a fat paycheck.
Shruti Majithia
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