If you’re looking for top dollar and job satisfaction as an IT professional, try for a role in the biggest, most faceless mega-corporation you can find – at least that’s what mid-year US salary survey data suggests.
Okay, you might not want to sign up with anybody that’s too faceless and megalithic, but recent IT salary survey results examined by IT management consulting firm Janco suggest IT professionals will be happier at a large enterprise, where salaries are higher, benefits are better, and attrition rates are lower. Janco defined “large” as companies with more than 1,000 employees or more than $500 million in annual revenue in a 2023 report [PDF].
Executive-level IT positions in large enterprises are paid 13 percent more than in smaller firms, for example. While not as vast a gulf, middle managers and staff in the IT department similarly earn more in large enterprises – on average the three tiers of employment (exec, mid-manager, staff) earn around $5,119 more a year at a larger firm.
To add to that, bonuses and fringe benefits at large enterprises push salaries even higher when they’re accounted for. Professionals at large enterprises make around 2.46 percent more when their benefits are added on, while mid-sized enterprise staff make just shy of two percent more if their perks are converted to cash.
Those working at tech companies earn 5.7 percent more than their peers in other industries, and this gap is growing
Compared to last year, large enterprise salaries are also rising at a faster rate, with a 2.64 percent average year-over-year increase compared to the 1.95 percent that medium-sized enterprises’ salaries rose.
As for where you might want to seek a large-enterprise job that’ll give you all those benefits, look to Dice’s 2025 Tech Salary Trends Report published earlier this year. According to the job-finding site, tech professionals looking for the highest pay ought to go to work at an actual technology company.
“Those working at tech companies earn 5.7 percent more than their peers in other industries, and this gap is growing,” Dice wrote.
Nonetheless, “there is plenty of opportunity outside of the tech industry, especially for those willing to accept lower compensation,” Dice added.
As for what you might want to find a job doing – be it at a tech company or in the … outside world – it probably doesn’t take much guessing to know what sells right now: AI.
“Demand has remained high for IT professionals supporting artificial intelligence, security, Blockchain, and e-commerce,” Janco noted.
According to Janco’s data, the mean salary for a Chief AI Officer as of June 2025 is $225,945 – up less year-over-year than some other positions it reported on. But the AI role is now the second-highest paying position behind CIO at most firms.
The less-than-great news
Things might be better in large-enterprise land, but don’t let those numbers distract you from the reality of the situation: Zoom out just a bit and you’ll see that, while comparing two sides of the industry shows clear winners and losers, salary increases are more generally flat.
According to Janco, IT professionals saw an average year-over-year salary increase of just 0.88 percent, which is less than the annualized inflation rate.
Dice’s report, delivered at the start of 2025 and not mid-year, shows a similarly flat salary growth rate of just 1.2 percent YoY from the beginning to end of 2024.
It’s worth noting that Dice also reported record-low salary satisfaction, with 59 percent of professionals feeling underpaid and 42 percent expressing “active dissatisfaction with their compensation.”
It seems like we’re facing an IT employment reckoning. AI and automation, according to Janco, are eliminating many low-skilled and entry-level IT positions and shrinking the tech workforce. At the same time, those still employed are unhappy with how much they’re being paid and it seems that, outside of working on AI, wages aren’t really rising.
AI, meanwhile, is getting crammed everywhere companies can find a free rack as systems sort of, improve and gain new skills. Buckle in – the IT employment market might keep getting worse before it gets better. ®