In less than a last decade, the Philippine government has already refocused its employment priorities to the promising information and communications technology (ICT) industry. One of the key drivers in Philippine ICT industry is the fast growth and booming demand for business process outsourcing from other countries. Obviously, the Philippines can offer cost-effective and quality knowledge workers positioning it as one of the most preferred off-shoring locations. We can clearly see evidences of these in the rapid development of information technology parks located elsewhere in the country: UP North Science and Technology and Eastwood City in Quezon City, Bonifacio Global City’s E-Square in Taguig City, Northgate Cyberzone in Alabang, Muntinlupa, and all other PEZA identified IT zones and buildings.
Given all these developments, are Philippine IT professionals provided with competitive salaries and benefits? ZDNet surveyed 2,521 professionals from different organizations, sectors, industries, and job-types. Interestingly, findings show that several factors really affect the salary of an IT professional. Factors include the level of education, job function, industry, skills, company size, years of experience, professional certifications, and even employment status.
The level of education of an employee significantly affects one’s salary. On the management level, salary of PhD holders is more than twice than those managers and CIOs with only Bachelor’s degree.
Another interesting revelation in the study is that only 24.4 percent of surveyed IT professionals hold at least one professional certification. Seventy five percent do not have any IT certification. In the Philippines, the most common IT certification is the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) with 25.4 percent of those with certifications, followed by Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Computer Associates Certification with 19.2 and 8.5 percent respectively. Only 5.4 percent are certified Project Management Professionals.
In comparison with neighboring countries in the Asia Pacific region, the
Philippines ranked seventh in the overall average annual salary. IT professionals in the country have an average of PhP 500,736 (USD 12,425) a year outranked by Australia (USD 76,851), Hong Kong (USD 57, 303), Singapore (USD 44,858), Thailand (USD 24,108), Malaysia (USD 22,582), and India (USD 13,864). Indonesia ranked last with only USD 7,709.
Source: IT Salary and Skills Report 2008 – Philippines
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