Emurse

Employees in the computer systems design and related services industry generally command higher earnings than the national average.All production or nonsupervisory workers in the industry averaged $1,136 a week in 2004, significantly higher than the average of $529 for all industries.This reflects the concentration of professionals and specialists, who often are highly compensated for their specialized skills or expertise.Given the pace at which technology advances in this industry, earnings can be driven by demand for specific skills or experience.Workers in segments of the industry that offer only professional services have even higher average earnings because there are fewerless skilled, lower paid workers in these segments. Earnings in selected occupations in computer systems design and related services appear in table 3.

As one might expect, education and experience influence earnings as well. For example, annualearnings of computer software engineers, applications ranged from less than $43,450 for the lowestpaid 10 percent to more than $118,500 for the highest paid 10 percent in May 2004.Managers usually earn more because they have been on the job longer and are more experiencedthan their staffs, but their salaries, too, can vary by level and experience.Accordingly, annual earnings of computer and information systems managers ranged fromless than $60,810 for the lowest paid 10 percent to more than $145,600 for the highestpaid 10 percent in May 2004. Earnings also are affected by other factors, such as size,location, and type of establishment, hours and responsibilities of the employee, and level of sales.

Unionization is rare in the computer systems design and related services industry; only 1 percent of all workers are union members or are covered by union contracts, compared with 14 percent of workers throughout private industry.