IT salaries vary greatly by country

The salaries of IT professionals vary greatly depending on where they live, according to a research report from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Annual pay ranges from $164,900 in Switzerland to $24,900 in the Philippines for senior-level IT positions. For lower-level jobs, the disparity is also great, with the same position earning $64,100 in Germany and $12,400 in China. This helps explain why so many companies in North America and Europe are keen to offshore IT services.

Switzerland pays the most across the board, with IT pros earning from $75,100 to $164,900, depending on their level of experience.

Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, the US and Denmark are the next highest.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Indonesia and India pay the lowest wages for IT workers.

Companies looking to offshore should be careful about which types of IT jobs they place in which counties, because the difference in salary from low-level to high-level positions changes quite a bit. Mexico, for example, ranks No. 10 in salary for the highest expertise level but comes in at No. 20 for the lowest expertise level. India, a popular offshoring location, ranks in the bottom 10 for all types of IT jobs.

The variation is a result of local supply and demand, the maturity of the country's IT industry and local taxation laws, Mercer's David Van De Voort said in a statement.

The study includes data from more than 43,000 IT pros in 3,300 companies in 32 countries.

By comparison, silicon.com's 2004 Skills Survey showed that the majority of respondents, 88 per cent of which are from the UK, earn between £25,001 to £55,000 (about $45,000 to $99,000).