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Belfast has the cheapest IT staff in Europe – almost
Irish eyes are smiling?

By Ron Coates

Published: Thursday 13 May 2004

Northern Ireland has ratcheted up the battle for inward investment by touting the low price of its IT staff.

Regional booster Invest NI has just pushed out a salary survey indicating "significantly lower employer costs in Belfast". The survey points out that you have to go to Prague or Budapest to find lower wages in Europe.

But most of the comparisons are with Dublin, so it seems to be aimed at picking up a bit of investment from the Republic, or from companies already based there.

Trevor Killen, director of Invest NI in Dublin, said in a statement: "This is positive news for inward investment into Northern Ireland. Despite significantly lower employment costs, companies investing in the North will experience the benefits of a highly skilled workforce with no shortage of staff available, and easy access to Dublin, GB and other key markets."

The lower down the scale you go the worse, or better - depending on who's looking - it gets. A junior programmer in Belfast sees a 69 per cent differential, getting €26,005 a year compared to the Dubliner's €44,014.

A head of IT in Dublin will get €107,253, 18 per cent more than the €91,251 paid to their equivalent in Belfast. In London, according to the survey, the employee would get €112,630 (£75,489).

The narrowest differential is at the MIS level, with the Belfast worker on €63,479 – within nine per cent of the Dubliner's €69,478. Most of the differentials for other staff hover around the 20 per cent level with a 30 per cent difference for senior programmers.

Incidentally the survey pegs the average head of IT salary in San Francisco ("amongst the highest in the world") at €165,331 ($196,707).