Base pay instead of bonuses for techies too
While bonuses for the humble techie could never rival those of their front office counterparts, IT workers have not been excluded from the trend of raising base salaries in lieu of cash-based variable compensation.
They may be slower than the front office in receiving base pay rises, but many banks have hiked salaries by 20-30%, according to various IT executive search firms.
"The biggest salary rises are at VP level, where candidates who would have received 80k 12-15 months ago are now being offered 100-110k," says Paul Bennie, director of IT in finance recruiters Bennie McLean.
BarCap, Deutsche Bank, RBS and Morgan Stanley are alleged to have increased base pay for techies, while J.P. Morgan is being more reticent about across-the-board salary rises but is flexible about pay when it comes to taking new people onboard.
"Salaries are rising, but I would largely put this down to increased recruitment activity," says Dan Gallagher, manager of financial technology recruiters Cititec. "People are receiving offers for roles that would normally be paying 100k, for example, but their current employer is counter-offering 120-140k."
Financial IT recruiters the JM Group conduct a quarterly investment banking salary survey for technology roles, which suggest that in Q2 base pay had risen by between 20-40%.
Darrell Cameron-Webb, head of investment banking at the recruiter, says: "We are seeing base salaries increase because of elasticity of demand, rather than as a clandestine way of getting around bonuses," he suggests.
