Senior financial IT staff salaries have flatlined

The salaries of senior IT staff have flatlined in the last year because banks refuse to change their wage structures, according to a study on investment banks by IT recruitment firm JM Group.

The static salaries follow a 14 per cent increase between 2008 and 2010 for senior IT roles and a five per cent increase for less senior IT roles over the same period.

Dave Pye, CEO of JM believes that the high rates between 2008 and 2010 were the result of the banks restructuring their compensation schemes following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. This meant that banks had to reduce their bonuses and so offered increased salaries instead.

However, banks are now monitoring their cost lines more closely. "We've noticed a definite push towards the recruitment of staff at the lower end of their defined salary brackets and, in contrast to before, the refusal to exceed these brackets, no matter what the circumstances," said Pye.

However the story across the industry as a whole is quite different. A few months ago, recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark's Talent Spotlight report claimed that salaries for permanent IT staff were up 6.15 per cent in August this year compared with August 2010.

This suggests that companies in other verticals are less cautious in the current climate than banks.

Back to the finance sector, the last year also saw a four per cent dip in the salaries of less senior IT staff within the financial sector and JM believes that some IT staff would now consider their career prospects as more important than the amount they could increase their salaries by.

Martin Rennison, head of investment banking at JM, added: "The slight dip in salaries for less senior IT roles may reflect the fact that where staff don't see an opportunity for development or promotion, candidates will now move for less significant salary increases if they can see how it will benefit their long-term career."

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