2007 salary survey of database professionals

Update: 2008 Oracle DBA salary survey

This is a new 2007 IT salary survey, showing the average salaries for database professionals, relating to other IT job categories, shoeing that an "average" DBA earns about $75k in 2007, just below engineers:

JOB TITLE		SALARY
Executive Management		$97,616
Sr IT Management		$91,185
Consultant		$84,627
Computer Security Specialists		$82,237
Computer Software Engineers		$78,405
Engineer - other		$77,527
Database Administrator/Analyst		$74,623

However, there is a wide variation in salaries for Oracle professionals depending upon specialized expertise (RAC) and location.

In my article how to become an Oracle DBA, we see that hard-working kids who have distinguished themselves by graduating from a top-tier university are aggressively courted by the major software vendors (Oracle likes to hire from Harvard, MIT, etc.).

Here are my notes on Oracle Salary Compensation, and there is a wide variation according to the responsibilities of the DBA job, the quality of the DBA, the cost of living, and the experience of the DBA. Here is a 2005 Oracle DBA salary survey showing the national average for DBA's at $65,000 per year, and compared to the 2007 figure of $75,000, it suggests a growth rate of about 12% per year.

Salary = (age time two)

On average, an Oracle professional can expect to earn approximately age x 2. If you are 22 years old, expect a starting salary for an entry-level Oracle administration job to be about $44,000. As your experience increases, so does your salary, such that you could expect about $100,000 per year when you are 50 years old (age x 2) with 28 years experience.

However, there is a huge variation in DBA salary. Back in 1981, the average DBA salary was about age+10, and a DBA right out of college could expect to earn $32k/year, a nice salary back when gasoline was 80 cents a gallon. Today, inflation and increased demand have increased the DBA pay scale:

Low Tier DBA

An Oracle DBA without college and less than 10 years experience earns about age*2, a 25 year-old earning about $50k/year.

Middle Tier DBA

A DBA with a Bachelors degree and ten years full-time work experience can earn up to age*3, with a 35 year-old DBA earning about $105/year.

Senior DBA

A senior DBA with a Masters degree, 20 years experience managing mission critical database can earn up to age*4, with a 45 year-old DBA manager earning up to $180k/year.

Superstar DBA

For those DBA Superstars with advanced degrees and specialized skills (RAC, Oracle Apps), the pay is often as high as age*6 and a 35 year-old superstar can earn up to $210k per year.

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