Salary question
 

The local government or municipality (which word is most common btw?) called me today and asked if I could come and take an interview on monday.
I'm just curious about the average salary for an IT accountant, they might ask what I want. Does anybody know?


I have no financial background whatsoever, just computer science and biotech...
(I do have 1 year with some budget and political advisor experience from the Department of Justice).

Check the Occupational Outlook Handbook. I think that's what it's called anyway. It usually has average salary range for most occupations.

Or view this website for the OOH.

PayScale - Salary Survey, Salaries, Wages, Compensation Information and Analysis is a pretty awesome way of doing things. You put in your zip as well as occupation & experience. It will give you an average of pay based on polls and what-not.

This website is absolutely awesome. Thanks for sharing it - VERY useful.<3

Gech, that website isn't very accurate. It looks as if all it does is compile averages based on its current users' registered info. I mean, there's no way in hell that a Staff Accountant makes less than a High School Teacher in my area. I've talked to all of the local firms and from what they tell me even the introductory pay is at least $5,000 more a year than Payscale's "average pay".


As for where I go to check incomes, I tend to use either monster.com's salary search or I go check out Salary.com for a second opinion. I think Monster.com even has a price-of-living comparison so you can see if that boosted pay in the big city is really worth it or not.

oh god that site's funny. 5 people reported in my area and field, so not a very good representation - and when they show you anonymous profiles, there's a link that suggests that if you give this site money, they will tell you what each person makes.

Also I think I found a coworker on this page.

Matt --
When I did a search at one point, it asked for my position, my company, years of experience, pay, and zip-code. It tallied that on in to the figures and showed me the results.

I wouldn't say it's inaccurate. The values are pretty realistic, but the pay difference between a newbie (0 months experience) to someone who is about to end their training duration (~24 months experience) is considerable. That can skew some numbers, but hell, nothing is perfect.

Just lobbing it out to give a general idea =o

Maybe it depends on the kind of job your inquiry is regarding?

Wow. I'm kind of underpaid right now. That's funny considering I work for a rich bank.

It's amazing how much of a variance you can get just by asking for more money. =o I get the impression too many people just bend over for salary offers.

Miles --
Could be due to a few things =O How long have you worked there? Are you still a "trainee"? Some places don't give nice pay raises until you hit the 6-12 month-mark (showing you're worth it, basically). Another reason could be good benefits. If your bank has awesome benefits (401k, health, dental, time off, etc) then maybe they're giving you less pay than the market average simply because they're balancing things. One company I applied at last year gave people an ungodly sort of pay, but the time off and benefits were atrocious.

My brother is making an obscene amount of cash, but his company only matches, like, 1% of 401k. Something really pissant like that =(

About a year, and I'm not exactly a trainee anymore. I was running support for all 16 branches solo just 2 months after working there, dealing with server crashes, and all sorts of other fun things. I even won an award. But they still haven't said anything about bumping me up to what I should be getting paid. Plus looking at other jobs in the area I qualify for I can make an extra 4 to 7 bucks an hour.

The bank does have decent benefits though. 88 hours vacation time, 10 paid holidays a year, 10 paid sickdays a year, and 3 personal days and a birthday floater, along with medical, dental and vision. But if the other two people doing the same thing as me are making 10+ more than me when I do a majority of the work by myself while they look up recipes online I'd rather find a job closer and one that doesn't force me to commute through traffic every day.

Well, if you jump businesses after being there for a year, I doubt folks would complain. If you make a habit of bouncing around though, it starts to look bad. Looking closer-to-home and for more money would be very justified.

Miles, my perception has been that companies do not tend to offer raises if they can avoid it. If you don't have any kind of annual employee review which could result in a raise, then take matters into your own hands. Address it with your boss, or whoever's actually in charge of wages. You can make a sound argument if you work off of the average salary in your profession, especially if you've done things that are significantly value-added for the company.

If they don't come through for you, then yeah, find someplace else that will appreciate you better. You're the only person who's going to be your advocate in the private sector. You can't just wait for people to hand you money. =/