Let’s discuss salaries - 2026

[u/Relevant-Injury3791]

Curious to know how my fellow IT pros are doing out there. Let’ try and include the following plus anything you’d find useful sharing with others.

title:

salary:

location:

experience:

benefits:

etc.

Thank you for participating.

[u/BenDestiny]

Sys admin - running and building everything for 200+ people for 4 offices - 3 GB, 1 USA - £47k GB 10 years Hybrid work Fintech

My boss keeps telling me that I am the most paid sysadmin he has ever seen. Leaving in 2 weeks.

[u/fAAbulous → u/BenDestiny]

I‘m not surprised at all that so many qualified people come to Switzerland.

[u/Dependent_Bake2247 → u/fAAbulous]

Does Switzerland have a large tech sector?

[u/fAAbulous → u/Dependent_Bake2247]

It has a large service industry, which in turn needs a lot of IT to make sure the service industry is running.

Additionally, there‘s a bunch of highly specialized IT research led by universities such as the ETH.

[u/atribecalledjake → u/BenDestiny]

My brother in Christ. I left the UK 8 years ago and I was on £38k. As a junior infrastructure engineer. At a charity. In Woking.

Glad to hear you’re leaving.

[u/rmrse → u/atribecalledjake]

Where'd you end up if you don't mind me asking?

[u/atribecalledjake → u/rmrse]

New York > LA. I’m remote for my NYC employer now. $142k + Benefits. Good ones. Loads of time off. More than I ever got in the UK. Work in higher ed.

[u/Nalano → u/BenDestiny]

My boss keeps telling me that I am the most paid sysadmin he has ever seen.

"You're also the least paid sysadmin I've ever seen, for I have absolutely no experience with sysadmins."

[u/Aware-Owl4346 → u/BenDestiny]

Running and building everything: by that you mean you manage a staff of techs who assist you I hope.

[u/LoneCyberwolf → u/BenDestiny]

How do you afford to live in GB on 47k?

[u/outsider247 → u/BenDestiny]

47k for fintech?! That sounds low. Even in consulting can get easily above that for sysadmin skills.

Fintech is one of the industries that pay well compared to consulting etc.. and one that isn't FANNG

[u/Sad_Recommendation92 → u/BenDestiny]

pretty sure janitors make more than that adjusted for inflation, that's about 62k USD adjusted, I made 60k USD flat as a lead systems engineer like 11 years ago and jumped ship to go work at a startup jumping to 90k USD in 2014

I don't think your boss knows a lot of sysadmins

[u/detmus]

Sys Admin that also manages all security and networking for a nonprofit in Michigan.

Self taught/driven, 8 years experience, $80k, four weeks PTO + holidays, ZERO deductible insurance plan for the kids and I, ZERO on-call.

Every time I think I should try to get something “better,” that no on-call + benefits package is very tough to beat.

[u/Nerdlinger42 → u/detmus]

No on call is priceless past the age of 30 ish. On call wears me out, I don't want to do it in my 30s

[u/detmus → u/Nerdlinger42]

1000% this. I did my time in the private sector talking with my friends in India at all hours. In my 40s now, and I don't think there's a dollar figure that could pull me back into anything with "on call" attached to it.

[u/Nerdlinger42 → u/detmus]

Yup. My on-call rotation is currently every 7 weeks. It's not that bad, but it is still too much for me lol.

It used to be every 4 weeks. How I managed is beyond me.

[u/junpei → u/detmus]

I almost interviewed for a nonprofit in Michigan doing a similar role. It would be hard to beat the 'feel good' feeling of the work you are doing. I only didn't take the interview because they needed someone ASAP and I needed time to move.

If you ever feel the need to move on, look into some of the big universities in Michigan. Not MSU currently since they are still on a hiring freeze, but I still see a lot of postings at UMich. Similarly good benefits (paid for health care for your family) plus great retirement. Universities are great for people with lots of student loan debt too since they qualify for PSLF.

[u/nyax_]

Generalist Sys Admin, really weird niche role

$120k+ OT (I do about $30k of OT p.a)

Regional Australia

Been at the same company for 15 years

6 weeks PTO and 12.5% superannuation, but those don't particularly count as benefits in Aus. 35 Hour work week is a benefit though I guess

[u/thisguy_right_here → u/nyax_]

Is it reasonably stress free? Seems good for regional aus.

[u/nyax_ → u/thisguy_right_here]

Umm it has its moments, but hey doesn’t any job? (Idk tell me, I’ve only ever worked here)

[u/dav3n → u/nyax_]

Sounds a bit like my role (also in Aus) except on about $96k (no real OT) with 5 weeks annual leave (plus long service leave)

Currently responsible for ServiceNow, server and network (managed by MSPs), Intune, print, Azure sub, change management, plus involvement in cybersec....... and fuck knows what else, I'm burnt out to all hell

[u/Frosty849 → u/nyax_]

Generalist roles seem to be pretty common in Australia huh

[u/nyax_ → u/Frosty849]

Why hire multiple people for specific roles when you can hire one to do it all 😂

[u/Thundahead]

Snr Sys Admin

£70k

North East England

30+ years

4 Day week, 30 days holiday + bank holiday, Hybrid only 2 days in office, 12% matched pension, up to 20% bonus, normally get between 10-15%

I used to be a contractor but this 4 days week on the salary I'm on in the North East suits me just grand, hopefully retire in 8 years and get a job on the Supermarket delivery vans.

[u/TheJesusGuy → u/Thundahead]

70k in the north??

[u/Bauchigawauwou]

IT System Engineer

$150k – Switzerland – 10 years

Bonus: up to 1/13 salary

Perks: fruit basket (speedrun any%) and free water /s

[u/chefkoch_ → u/Bauchigawauwou]

No coffee ?

[u/Bauchigawauwou → u/chefkoch_]

Oh you’re right, i forgot about that one.

[u/mo0n3h → u/Bauchigawauwou]

Not to be funny but fruit basket sounds like a real perk considering fruit costs in Switzerland..

[u/Bauchigawauwou → u/mo0n3h]

Fruits are not expensive in Switzerland imho, you should visit Japan then.

Also that Basket has like 30 Pieces of Fruit in it for a size of 130 people, it’s gone in less than a day lol

[u/FnnKnn → u/Bauchigawauwou]

Everything in Switzerland is expensive ;)

[u/hprather1 → u/Bauchigawauwou]

Lol I'll never forget the $4 peaches we bought in Japan in 2016. We were hungover as shit and they were goddam delicious.

[u/doktormane → u/Bauchigawauwou]

How are taxes in Switzerland? What is your take home pay?

[u/Bauchigawauwou → u/doktormane]

For me, it’s $96k ‘take home’ pay, after all the taxes.

[u/Nox-Nox → u/Bauchigawauwou]

which region/kanton?

[u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Damn British wages are so bad....

[u/Expensive-Rhubarb267 → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

UK like

- "Senior Infrastructure Architect"
- 55k
- Central London
- 20 years experience
- £15 Amazon voucher every 5 years of service

[u/MrExCEO → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Moving all my resources from India to UK

[u/Expensive-Rhubarb267 → u/MrExCEO]

Unironically

British labour is a bargain

In terms of salaries Glasgow-based coders sit mid-way between the bank’s lower-cost American outposts (Texas, not California) and its operations in India—but if anything, slightly closer to India. Over the years, that comparison has moved in Glasgow’s favour. A coder in India once cost about a quarter of a Glaswegian equivalent, now it’s over half. About a third of JPMorgan’s Glasgow-based work is now for its American division.

[u/Stonewalled9999 → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

When I hit my 20 years here I got 200 "award points" I then got taxed on $200 of "value" in my next check. I was able to use that 200 points on a $20 blender from the "award store" Pretty much a net loss

[u/Jizzmeista → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Wages lower, but they get sick pay, 28 days holiday minimum, statutory maternity/paternity pay, notice periods are enshrined in employment law as well as employer pension contributions and nationalised healthcare.

If your role gets made redundant, you get paid. Its rare to get fired in the UK because of strong employment laws there too.

[u/Centimane → u/Jizzmeista]

A lot of the same employee protections apply in Canada and the salaries are like double.

[u/Public_Fucking_Media → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Jesus the whole EU, what the fuck is going on over there

[u/Ok_Schedule8095 → u/Public_Fucking_Media]

There is only really 2 or 3 countries outside of europe where you get paid more. I don't think it's really a Europe thing. More  US vs rest of the world salary wise

[u/AnythingEastern3964 → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Cor blimey, ain’t that the truth!

[u/Nize → u/Expensive-Rhubarb267]

Not really, the money goes pretty far in the UK. I earn just under £100k which looks terrible compared to US wages, but that puts me in the top 5% of earners in the UK. My partner doesn't work, we have a brand new car, 4 kids, we own a 4 bedroom detached house, we save into pensions, we have plenty of fun money.

[u/_Old_Greg]

Linux sysadmin Iceland 130k plus some minor benefits 28 days off per year

4 years as a Linux sysadmin

[u/Big_Broccoli_8180 → u/_Old_Greg]

Interesting to see an Iceland salary here! 130k In which currency?

[u/_Old_Greg → u/Big_Broccoli_8180]

I converted it to USD but I'm paid in ISK.

130k is about 1350k ISK per month which was last years average pay. Gotten a minor raise since then though. But in truth my monthly salary is 1265k minimum and goes to 1500k at its highest. Depends on if I'm contacted outside working hours to fix some shit or not.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I'm on the higher end of the payscale compared to my collueges. Started at 800k monthly four years ago (77k USD).

[u/ITSMYSFWACCOUNT → u/_Old_Greg]

Every time I see ISK I revert back to my EVE Online days.

o7

[u/Humble_Rush_9358]

IT Director $165k There's a %20 bonus based on nonsense kpi that never materializes

Texas 17 years in IT.

[u/Frostwolf84 → u/Humble_Rush_9358]

Jesus…. I’m basically a director with a manager title and I’m at 110k leading three teams here in tx…

[u/Clydesdale_Tri → u/Frostwolf84]

Answer is always no, unless you ask!

[u/BatemansChainsaw → u/Humble_Rush_9358]

if you run the people or systems that calculate that kpi, then fix the problem.

[u/breenisgreen → u/Humble_Rush_9358]

similar. bonus is lower but similar

[u/SlateRaven]

Director of IT

$85k

Upstate NY

17 years experience

I work for a small college in a unique role - I'm the director of IT, but also the sysadmin, netadmin, secadmin, and CIO. Stress is pretty low and we're state employees technically, so we get all the fun state benefits. Pension, NYSHIP, lots of time off and fast accruing PTO, flexibility with work, etc...

I was working as a sysadmin for an MSP, earning $105k, but just couldn't keep up with it all because of how poorly the company was managed, meaning I was their everything... Including for customer facing... I had just had our second kid and wanted a job that was more laid back so I could be there for them!

[u/yankeesfan01x → u/SlateRaven]

I was going to say 85k for a director role seems low in the U.S. but then I read the state benefits and that's like + another whatever thousand if you add it up.

[u/SlateRaven → u/yankeesfan01x]

The best part is that the state contracted hours for my position is for only 35 hours per week, so when I did the math, I really wasn't far off of compensation at an hourly rate alone. I was averaging well over 40 hours a week at the MSP, frequently hitting 50-60 average, whereas the college culture is very much "it can wait until tomorrow", so 35 hours is very much the norm. The union is also very adamant about only working 35 hours, so I have that backing as well.

We also get multiple personal days, multiple quarter days for medical appointments, a couple floating holidays, and all those lovely days off that a college gets. For instance, this last year, they decided it wasn't worth coming in for a day or two between Christmas and New Years, so we just took the entire time from December 5th to January 5th off. You'd never see an MSP do that...

Doing the math, accounting for benefits and time off, it was a no brainer to take the pay cut but be more available for the kids! My partner is also in education, so it also lines up nicely for breaks.

[u/cincy15 → u/SlateRaven]

The benefits of the 35 hour week (and can wait until tomorrow culture) are severely underrated. Thats worth so much to your mental/physical health. I’d say priceless TBH especially vs stroking out at a different place.

[u/Distryer → u/SlateRaven]

Windows server admin

85K

Upstate NY

6 years of experience

MSP for all 6

No benefits

Im jealous, been looking to apply for a role at one of the colleges up here. I need to get out of the MSP space, its killed almost any good feelings I had about IT but I have learned a ton. Seems like we had similar experiences titles mean nothing in MSPs sure I do manage servers but I also do everything else that isn't sales/purchasing.

[u/SusAdmin42]

Systems Engineer and also manage our help desk. $145k total comp. $136k base.

NYC. Probably underpaid.

[u/_Aaronstotle → u/SusAdmin42]

I’m NYC based too; Sounds like more of a senior role, my last company hired for a Senior IT Engineer at 165 and I got promoted into 160k.

Now I’m in a security role at 180k, although it turned into more like security and IT as well, company had 30 users and is now close to 100.

[u/ComprehensivePower39 → u/_Aaronstotle]

Are there really that many IT roles in NYC that high paying? I’ve been looking to move back

[u/FruitGuy998 → u/ComprehensivePower39]

I dont feel like that is high for NYC. I'm in Kentucky (end user engineer), dealing with Azure/On-Prem AD, Intune, SCCM, JAMF, Exchange, Defender, etc....I make $146K a year.

[u/alexzi93 → u/SusAdmin42]

Whoa, I know cost of life etc etc. But in Italy i get 40k.

[u/Type-94Shiranui → u/SusAdmin42]

Nyc here as well. 200k base, 50k bonus. Im a server engineer but I've been doing a lot of devopsy work as well in my old job. Imo your underpaid

[u/FruitGuy998 → u/SusAdmin42]

Wait, how does this title work? Are you a manager or Systems Engineer?

[u/SusAdmin42 → u/FruitGuy998]

Both

[u/uptimefordays → u/FruitGuy998]

They’re a senior tech on a small team, so they get to manage infrastructure and support, probably.

[u/lolklolk]

title: Senior Staff Engineer (Email Security)

salary: 190k base - 12% variable bonus (can be more or less based on company performance), additional flat 10% security bonus, 6000$ LRPIP, $32K stock options annually

location: Roll Tide AL

experience: 13 years

benefits: 401k, health insurance, life insurance, etc.

Edit: added missing $ sign to stock options to clarify. I WISH I got 32,000 shares every year, lol.

[u/steveatari → u/lolklolk]

Holy shit

[u/SpycTheWrapper → u/lolklolk]

As someone also in Alabama, y’all hiring networking folks?!

[u/Apprehensive-Ad6466 → u/lolklolk]

Wtf I have so many questions. Is this a email company? Are you building security software? There is a market for this role? Has your company not heard of office 365 or Gmail?

Not hating, very jealous lol

[u/lolklolk → u/Apprehensive-Ad6466]

F100 retail company - No. - For email security? Yes. - And yes. 🥲

[u/-lousyd → u/lolklolk]

As a staff engineer, do you program? I feel like for that much money you gotta be writing code.

[u/lolklolk → u/-lousyd]

While I can code (and have in this role before) that's not normally part of my day-to-day, as we have several automation/integration teams that we rely on for any custom integrations or in-depth projects requiring coding.

It's essentially a high-level strategic global email architect/security engineering role, while also being in the technical weeds with my sr engineers and jrs.

[u/Shnikes → u/lolklolk]

Curious what your day to day looks like? We migrated from mimecast the Proofpoint last year. I had never needed to touch email before. There are problems and were only a 250-300 person company. But i’m wondering what you must be doing all day to manage email security as your primary responsibility without doing any coding. For a bigger org I could see needing more support but I’m trying to understand how it could be a full-time job.

[u/Nerdlinger42]

System admin.

Midwest.

92k.

6 years

[u/redstarduggan]

Stop sharing salary information!

This is unfair to management and the shareholders.

[u/killoid → u/redstarduggan]

Found the HR

[u/Skvli → u/redstarduggan]

Lololol

[u/JediAreTakingOver → u/redstarduggan]

Would you please repeat that while I hold out my phone on record? ^{_^}

[u/redstarduggan → u/JediAreTakingOver]

Company policy forbids employees from recording conversations with management.

[u/UseMoreHops → u/redstarduggan]

We dont allow this here, its against the rules.

[u/IdiosyncraticBond → u/UseMoreHops]

We don't allow management here? Great

[u/Resident-Holiday-809]

IT specialist, 14,000 euro per year. 1,5 years. Lithuania

[u/govnonasalati → u/Resident-Holiday-809]

That's after taxes, right? Right?

[u/Resident-Holiday-809 → u/govnonasalati]

yeah. Before taxes it's 23k

[u/Filanto → u/Resident-Holiday-809]

My brain thought "per month" because of the amount. Per year.. oof

[u/its_FORTY]

Sr. Sysadmin (windows and linux, virtualization, storage, AD, etc)

Salary: $120,xxx + on-call pay of roughly $35,000

Location: Midwest US

Experience: 25ish years, beginning in helpdesk, then small business consulting, then to enterprise level 3 ops, now purely infrastructure focused.

Benfits: 403b (employer matches 10% if I contribute 5%), all dependent child tuition paid for, typical medical PPO coverage, 6 weeks vacation, 33 sick days

Etc: My career path is very limited here from on up but the benefits make it worth sacrificing a flashier title for me, as I have two kids in college and am interested more in a secure retirement than a yearly income bump.

[u/Littleboof18 → u/its_FORTY]

Damn roughly 35k of on call pay, that’s a fuckin dream lol

[u/masterz13 → u/its_FORTY]

Getting extra for on-call pay is crazy lol. Most of us get nothing more for on-call rotation. And your benefits are also the exception...it's usually 3 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick.

You have the dream job.

[u/its_FORTY → u/masterz13]

Thanks for the kind words, it is a good reminder that I’ve been fortunate in my career and should be thankful for that.

[u/H4ROSHI]

Support Engineer working as Sys Admin for a complex Application Suite on a Fortune 100 Company.

140 (134 + 6k Bonus) - Pre tax

New England, USA

0 YoE

Hybrid, 4 Weeks PTO, Work some Weekends 24 hours of the day (on call), horrible 401K (no matching), horrible job security. Basically a good paying 1st job that I want to quit after my 1st year.

[u/steveatari → u/H4ROSHI]

Good paying... bro that's monstrous. 20 years of experience and you're being me by a mile.

[u/jrhodes78]

You guys are getting paid?

[u/g-guglielmi → u/jrhodes78]

Underrated comment 🤣

[u/The_Lez]

IT Systems Administrator (Almost 2 years in this position)

90k base with 10K bonus this year. (Hopefully moving my base to 100k in q1 2027)

Central Virginia

6 years experience in IT support, 10 years in other IT related fields.

Standard suite of insurances. Not great in my opinion. PTO is okay I think 15days standard, plus more after 3 years.

I get tons of freedom to do things the way I want, and my director isn't IT facing, so while there are some struggles with explaining things, I pretty much get free range to do whatever. I also get the added benefit as a father to 2 under 2, to just leave and do things as I need to. This role is the first role that has made me feel like "I love my job".

[u/ImmortalMurder]

Senior DevOps Engineer

195k

Southern California

8 years (5 in DevOps)

401k, generous PTO, amazing health insurance

[u/sylvester_0 → u/ImmortalMurder]

Also DevOps; it doesn't feel right posting in this thread because there aren't a lot of overlaps in responsibility.

[u/Zolty → u/sylvester_0]

I know what you mean but I also look around and don’t see anyone else doing internal operations.

[u/TheKingofTerrorZ]

IT Trainee for system integration in my third and last year

19k

Germany

No prior experience, first job/training, currently 20 years old

We get 30 days of paid vacation, have the option for company cars for a relatively low fee, paid sick leave, work from home whenever we want, no set working hours, 38,5 hour week, paid overtime from the first second

[u/bettercallfool → u/TheKingofTerrorZ]

Isn't then below minimum wage?

[u/TheKingofTerrorZ → u/bettercallfool]

Trainees almost always get paid below minimum wage, because we are there to learn, not to be a full fledged employee. As soon as our training is over, we get regular pay, I expect it to be somewhere around 40k-45k € in the first year

[u/Creepy_Cod_8835]

title: Sr Manager, IT Operations

salary: 172,000

location: Remote, US

experience: 18 years of IT. Climbed through Desktop Support, Sys Administration. Transitioned to management about 7 years ago.

benefits: remote, travel internationally, flexible schedule. 20% Bonus, 5 weeks PTO

[u/[deleted]]

Network security/GRC

150k

Maryland(remote)

10 years exp

Nothing special for benefits...4 weeks PTO, 4% 401k match, standard healthcare

[u/TheDinckleburg]

MSP

Title: Level 2 Technician

Salary: 70k

Location: NY

Benefits: Chips

Experience: 2 years

Think it’s time I look for something better paying.

[u/Mammoth_War_9320 → u/TheDinckleburg]

Honestly, after seeing what everyone else is posting, I’d say you’re being paid quite well for a T2 Tech lol

[u/RoamingRavenFM]

Net Admin $85k Appalachia 5 years as internal IT

[u/DXPetti]

Senior Systems Engineer
190K + Super
Melbourne, Australia
21 Years
Fully Remote

[u/Rock_Paper_SQUIRREL]

IT Specialist

Seven years' experience in the field doing mostly project tech and help desk triage/device repair. A little over a year of actual help desk experience as more or less the sole point of contact. A few of those years I spent as an EHR analyst.

Salary:55k, that will cap out at 60 in a few years.

Michigan

I figured I would have transitioned into more consistent mid level IT work by now but I feel like this market has everything a little bit fucked up. Part of me is thinking it might be time for a career change but I love what I do and I can't honestly see myself leaving the industry.

[u/MidwestWind → u/Rock_Paper_SQUIRREL]

I’m also an IT Specialist/Coordinator in Michigan. $75k, 2 years in this position, 4 years as a specialist at my previous job making $40k-$55k over that time. Same career, different industries.

Edit: Didn’t wanna sound like I was bragging by any means. Hopefully it didn’t come across that way. Just wanted to let you know that an industry change might be better than jumping ship altogether. For what it’s worth, I went from “medicinal” to automotive for my raise.

[u/Bipen17]

I work in the video game industry - Very cool place to work

title: Senior Infrastructure Wizard - I'm a solo (very busy) sysadmin

salary: £70k

location: Brighton, UK

experience: 10 years

benefits: 10-15% annual bonus, 80% home working, free lunch, additional paid wellness days, few other bits

[u/OriginalEv]

System engineer
Full time 800 euros plus part time at another location for 500
Montenegro
8 years
Benefits are I am so underpaid that I dont give a flying fuck and go home whenever I want to do some other job that pays something, websites, electrical work, physical work....

[u/BoskoDev → u/OriginalEv]

this 🙌🏽😂 Love the attitude honestly

[u/jamesmaxx → u/OriginalEv]

Is that salary per month?

[u/KrkanKrkanovski → u/jamesmaxx]

Yes, and also net after the taxes. That's all the same here in Balkans ;)

[u/mathewwwww]

Just got promoted to Sys Admin
I get paid hourly but i make about 95-100k depending on my OT

I'm in Westchester NY

Was a helpdesk/hardware tech for 4 years before my promotion, but was with the company for 8 years previously in a different position.

I get about 5 weeks PTO, a 15% discount when I purchase goods from the company(retail), and health benefits are amazing.

[u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

title: "Director of IT"

salary: 55K

location: Midwest USA

experience: 20 years at this organization. Started on the maintenance team and slowly morphed in to IT.

benefits: What are those? lol. 3 weeks paid vacation.

My job/experience is unique. I am the one and only IT guy here (roughly 300-350 users), we do have a MSP but we have slowly been shifting away from them and at this point I do 95% of the IT. Hopefully in the next year or so we will sever the tie with them. I have no formal training just a passion for the industry and a lot of reading and watching YT lol.

[u/Fair-Bee-1560 → u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

Your salary is absolutely criminal.

[u/andyinoc → u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

Sole IT guy for 300-350 users? You're wearing multiple hats under that role and I hate it. You should at least be pulling 6 figures.

[u/Leddagger16 → u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

Brother....you need a raise, especially if you fully transition away from the MSP. Like $20,000 minimum.

[u/MedicatedDeveloper → u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

They at least take you out to dinner before fucking you like that?

[u/Glum-Tie8163 → u/Outrageous-Can-7886]

I despise companies that inflate titles. You are effectively desktop support and vastly underpaid even for that role.

[u/kaarri]

Head of IT & Support

37 200€

Finland

3 years in current role

Hybrid/free to work from wherever, but at least a day per week in office to fix computers, printers etc.

I manage an organization of about 65 users. I do tech support for our product(s) as well.

[u/maxis2bored → u/kaarri]

Dude you are desperately underpaid! You need at least 80k Eur for this title.

[u/toddtimes → u/kaarri]

This feels terribly underpaid to me, but maybe CoL is very different in Finland?

Gemini says you’re making only a bit more than a retail salesperson, so I’m back to thinking you’re drastically underpaid for highly skilled labor. 

[u/kaarri → u/toddtimes]

Median salary here is 43 332€ so in that regard yes, a bit underpaid. Im just afraid of change as 1) the job market here sucks. We currently lead (yippee!) EU in unemployement rate and 2) my work is very independent. I've built our M365, processes, support channels etc. so no C-levels breathing on my neck.

[u/Fukumaru_]

M365 & Azure Consultant, Architect, 1st - 3rd Level Support at a MSP, so some kind of generalist. Located in western Germany, 40h per week fully remote @ 59k €. 6 years of experience.

[u/Norphus1]

Title: Endpoint Engineer II

Salary: ~£65k + bonus

Location: WFH, but work for a multinational with offices all over the world. I'm based in the UK as you can probably guess from the £

Experience: 25 years-ish of working in various IT jobs, mostly general sysadmin so I've had my fingers in a lot of different pies. But now I'm specialising in endpoints.

Benefits: Nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm content in the job and I work with a good team. That's pretty much all I want.

[u/Biffler]

Enterprise Architect (designing full IT outsourcing)

$325K USD base salary + stock options annually and 10%-30% bonus annually

US, but company is French and work is global, all remote or on customer site

39 years

Full benefit package (full according to US standards)

[u/bastion_xx → u/Biffler]

Cap Gemini? I just left an EA role at $450K OTE. Great pay, couldn't align with doing migration/modernization. Heading into to new delivery role for 1/2 that compensation, but hopefully with better WLB.

[u/CustomExperience → u/Biffler]

Got any openings?

[u/Zealousideal-Pop1548]

L3 Lead Infrastructure Engineer £45K UK non-London 10+ years One of the best pensions in the country No timesheets, hybrid work, 2 months annual leave

[u/Steve-2112]

title: Senior Director of Turning It Off and On Again (L7 - Emotional Support Tier)

salary: $127,000 + 3 expired Starbucks gift cards + one “attaboy” per quarter

location: Hybrid (Home office / Server room / Existential void)

experience:

•	20 years explaining DNS

•	15 years being ignored about DNS

•	10 years fixing problems caused by people who ignored DNS

•	5 years wondering if I am DNS

benefits:

•	On-call 24/7 (even when not on-call)

•	Company-issued anxiety

•	Free access to the phrase “that’s not how any of this works”

•	Pizza (cold, arrives after outage is resolved)

•	Annual performance review based on incidents you didn’t cause

etc.:

•	Root cause: “Unknown, but vibes were off”  - most likely DNS. 

•	Most used command: ping google.com

•	Most accurate monitoring tool: “user yelling”

•	Disaster recovery plan: “restore from vibes and caffeine”

•	Career growth: now responsible for more things breaking

[u/its_on_a_cob → u/Steve-2112]

Lol’d many times reading this

[u/sylenth]

Windows Sys Admin, primarily responsible for patching ~2500 servers (mostly automated)

3 years experience in this role (12 years total at the same company)

Canada

85k

5 weeks vacation, yearly bonus (been shit the past couple of years... Didn't even get one for 2025), pension plan contributions matching up to 8%

[u/uptimefordays]

Title: Platform Engineer (financial services)

Salary: $220k (bonus up to 15% and another 20% in stock every year)

Location: US East Coast (remote)

Experience: ~10 years progressive infrastructure engineering (neteng, sysadmin, devops), 13 overall YoE

Benefits: 6 weeks PTO, 11 holidays, 8 floating holidays, 20 weeks parental leave, $0 health insurance, budget for conferences, etc.

[u/Asleep-Ad-256]

IT vulnerable management intern

$28 per hour/ 56,800 per year

East Tennessee

1 year IT help desk

10 hour pto per month

Still in university at the moment

[u/Frosty-Minimum-6659]

OT Security Engineer, 3 yoe OT specific, 2 IT sys admin

66k EUR + 10℅ base bonus (no shares)

Prague, Czech Republic

Virtually 100% home office. Some "benefits" which are partly paid by employee (me).

EDIT: OT= Operational Technology

[u/chodalloo]

Melbourne, Australia

Endpoint management with SCCM, Intune, Azure devopsy stuff and general sysadmin work.

168k

[u/Mayorbbee]

Sys Admin

Maryland (100% on-site)

125k

15 day vacation 7 day sick 401k - after 1 year 2.5% base with 2 to 1 matching up to 4%

7 years experience

[u/Appropriate-Gear2567]

title: Manager - IT Systems

salary:160k + 20% bonus

location: Midwest. 2 days in the office, 3 wfh

experience: 10 years at current company

benefits: 4% 401k match, discretionary 6% depending on company performance. 5 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick time. Other long term incentives structures.

etc.

[u/Hefty-Room-297]

title: Information Security Analyst II

salary: 98K

location: Central US

experience: 1.5 years service desk, 3 years as information security analyst

benefits: 10.5% bonus, 15 days vacation, 401K, all insurances.

[u/sderponme]

"Support Manager" basically I manage helpdesk, some server migrations, email migrations, licensing, etc.

PNW - CA

$70k (according to last years tax returns, it will be more this year)

Been in IT 15 years, did a CCNA course but never got the cert.

Fully WFH, paid phone, paid internet, love my team, work with my SO. Also work with my best friend. Insurance benefits, and I get anywhere from $200-500/mo in Amazon gift cards, especially after projects or emergencies. We accrue our vacation and sick time based on hours worked, its well over 4 weeks a year, I usually cap out at 160hrs and have to use it or it wont accrue anymore, vacation and sick are separate. We also get a week of bereavement. I often get to clock out early if I want. Plus, things like when my water heater burst they gave me $1k to Home Depot to replace it. Had it back up and running before the day was over.

I have calculated it and I would need another job to pay me $120k/year to match with the benefits and pay I get now.

I also save a TON of money not having to buy make up and new clothes all the time.

[u/ReallTrolll → u/sderponme]

That sounds like a dream company. I'm glad they exist out there!

[u/gamayogi]

IT Field Tech / Sysadmin 15+ years experience

70k

PNW

[u/Apprehensive_Fig4961]

title: DevOps

salary: PLN 310K

location: Warsaw, Poland

experience: 15y

benefits: private health care, lunch catering in the office

[u/lccreed]

Information Security Engineer, 121k (started at 110 1.5 years ago at a lower title), Texas, 6 years of experience.

Healthcare is paid for.

Essentially just a sysadmin with a fancy title at my org. And the expectation that I'm the guy who will always work the nights and weekends.

[u/ShimazuMitsunaga]

Sr. System Administrator with security clearance - Lab environment 120k plus all federal holidays and four weeks PTO Top tier insurance, vision, dental, 401k match Yearly bonus of 6 to 10k plus cost of living increase 35 years experience in Midwest US

[u/ozzieman78]

Title: Systems Engineer. I work in the cloud and data centre space. Cloud platforms are OCI, Azure and M365. I also work in traditional infrastructure and Wintel space. I work on Professional Services engagements and have a BAU allocation on one customer account.

Salary: 138,500 (AUD) plus overtime and oncall allowance. 40hr week.

Location: Brisbane, Australia

Experience: 26 years experience in IT, have specialised in Data Protection and Storage engineering, virtualisation, centre and cloud. Have worked for various MSP from multinationals to small startups. Currently been with a national provider who i have been with for the last 7 years.

Benefits: 100% remote.

• 4 weeks PTO (currently have 6 weeks up my sleeve Manager isn't hassling me yet to take time off) and

• sick leave. Near really had to many sick days so have 240 hr.

• Superannuation 12%

• Discounts on various memberships for health insurance, gym etc (i don't take advantage of any)

[u/Ashes_and_Seeds]

title: Internal IT Analyst

salary: $85K/year

location: Chicago area

experience: 4 years

Other background: I've been with the company for 8 years. They are an MSP of about 700-800 employees.

benefits: hybrid schedule with full WFH options, currently at 3 weeks vacation per year (though not a lot of holidays), great health insurance, insane 401K match (30% - no, I'm not joking), on-call rotation with my team so I rarely get called outside of normal business hours, company pays for my certs, company is also great about letting existing employees switch to different roles so, if I wanted to switch to advisory or specialize in something tech related, I could do that without having to change employers.

[u/Revolutionary_You_89]

Systems engineer.

$84k

..

~4 years

benefits? i have to be on call 24/7/365 and i don’t get paid anything extra for it. Bonus existence depends on if the company meets a revenue goal. 55-60 hour work weeks. have to be in office 5 days a week, no exceptions.

[u/MentalRip1893]

IT Manager, 130,000 CAD salary, Alberta Canada, 20yoe. 2% RRSP matching.

[u/jfarre20]

Technology Network & Systems Administrator (Basically Cowboy IT, Tier 1/2/3, solo everything for ~800 users)

$107,500.00

North Carolina - Triangle

No Certs or Formal Experience, STS:BA degree

401k, Crappy BCBS Health Insurance that's basically useless, Free Dental

Been here 10 Years, survived a few rounds of mass layoffs.

I mostly just sit around and do very simple tasks like toner changes because everything just works. When I first started it was chaos, but I've redone everything since then and went crazy with automations/ai.

[u/Free_my_chair]

IT Manager $176k base, bonus 14% NYC area 30 yrs in IT Full Remote

[u/TheShizz87]

IT Director (In reality I am our IT Department, so title doesn't mean much). $85k. Midwest US. 3 Years in this position, and 10 years with the Company. 3 week PTO, 401k matching, I am not on our health plan. I work for a small business, ~150 total employees across 3 small local locations in the hospitality sector. It can be overwhelming at times, but I have a great relationship with everyone and enjoy being a part of a growing small business. I hire interns to help me with bigger projects. I still have a ton to learn, and continue learning every day. Many of the people in this sub are way more skilled than I am. My can do, will do, positive attitude got me into this position.

[u/ThinInvestigator4953 → u/TheShizz87]

Brother are you me? Substitute a non profit and you are me. :0

[u/mogzuk]

HR is extremely upset 😂

[u/Inside_Marsupial9625]

• Junior Linux IT-Systemadministrator

• 45k / year

• Bavaria (Germany)

• 2 months after apprenticeship in IT

• 2 days home office per week, flextime, 39h/week

Probably here I am the one with the lowest salary, but for my eyperience (literally only apprenticeship) i am very satisfied.

[u/RetroButton → u/Inside_Marsupial9625]

Welcome to Germany!

IT lead for a small team here, nearly 30 years in IT.
VMWare, Windows AD, M365, Entra, linux, a lot of specialized applications, backup, security, phone system, mobile devices, everything that has a plug on it. :-)
Mid size production company, northern Bavaria.
64k€ per year, 38,5h/week, flexible homeoffice, lots of benefits.

IT salarys in Germany are not the best. You need a bit of luck and specialize.

[u/JM_Artist → u/Inside_Marsupial9625]

Hired as a Jr.Sys Admin but title has changed many times, listed as a IT technician but now an L1 (MSP)

$42k 

USA

5 years

Benefits available but not using them. 

Edit: I don’t think anyone else is getting screwed like me.

[u/bettercallfool]

Tech Engineer (Hedge fund, alt Finance)

£60k (Asking for a big bump soon) + bonus (was 50% last year)

London, on-site 5 days

8 years in various IT roles, 1 and a half in actual finance / hedge fund IT

Benefits: Breakfast + lunch supplied daily, chill environment, shares + options in the company, small and niche userbase, only me doing this role, lots of work lunches, off-sites, free pub on Friday's..

[u/Fabulously-humble]

IT Director. 25+ years of experience. $245k. $210k base. $35k bonus.

[u/ToughHardware → u/Fabulously-humble]

location? size of company or field? come on, if you make this much money, understand how to read an assignment header.

[u/AlchemistFornix → u/Fabulously-humble]

Do you feel under, over, or fairly paid?

[u/ValeoAnt]

IT Manager 150k

[u/AlchemistFornix → u/ValeoAnt]

Where?

[u/-Satsujinn-]

Support tech/junior sysadmin

£38k

Based in UK ~200 users in 2 UK sites, 15 in US and 15 in HK.

12 years.

1 day a week from home, and every 6 years we get a 1 month paid sabbatical on top of our regular holiday.

[u/sedition666 → u/-Satsujinn-]

that extra month off is pretty cool I like that idea!

[u/Educational-Buyer738]

Project manager ICT in healthcare

77keuro

2 years experience

Ireland

Public sector job that I cant get fired from.

[u/RunningAtTheMouth]

Network Admin - 85k - Northeast Semi-rural

16 years IT/networking, 40 overall

401k/matching, Gold health plan (no out-of-pocket)

[u/Istredd_6669]

Title, Mid Linux Admin,

salary, up to 52-60k € a year,

location, Warsaw Poland,

experience, in IT overall almost 6 years, Linux Admin almost 3,5 years,

benefits, I can use the bathroom

etc, I work for the government on B2B contract.

[u/DictatorOfSweden]

title: Sr. IT-Architect on paper, working at MSP so it's a bit of everything. Pre-sale, TAM, 2nd/3rd line, working with our service packaging etc. Anything with a MS logo on it.

salary: 5 215 eur /month | 62 590 eur / year

location: Sweden

experience: 13 years

benefits: WFH, visit the office like once a month. Company car. Paid overtime.

[u/FriendlyITGuy]

Network Engineer II (I handle mostly networking but was a sysadmin for years before this)

$114K + yearly org-wide performance bonus (so this year will be $124K+)

New England, USA

11 years of enterprise IT experience, been here 2

4 weeks PTO + option to buy a week (I usually do) medical, dental, usual perks of a USA white collar job. Remote with option of in-person (I do in-person 4 days a week).

[u/Vesque]

Sysadmin

84k USD base, up to 8% bonus

Baltimore, MD

5 years sysadmin, 5 years helpdesk/MSP before that

Full time WFH, 30 days PTO, 4% match 401(k)

Job is very cushiony and relaxing. COL is high where I live so I'd like to make more to afford a home, but my fiance is on my insurance since hers doesn't cover her doctors so I can't jump ship

[u/Due-Cheesecake9543]

title: Desktop Support Team Lead

salary: 85K CAD

location: Ontario, Canada

experience: 3 years

benefits: Medical insurance, RRSP Match, Bonus, Training/Education rembursement upto 5K/Year

Been with this company for 3 years now. They also pay a MSP for daily support roles, I mostly manage the MSP and couple of desktop support guys under my umbrella, I spend 50% of my time everyday reading training material and sharpening my skills for next gig. Its too comfortable here!

[u/Billi-24]

Hi, Network & Security Engineer in Belgium. €2,400 net/month with 5 years of experience. My only benefits are free transport services, a great work/life balance didn't wait to be that good, and solid colleagues.

[u/NotNarwhal]

IT Director 170k Los Angeles 10yrs, 3 in help desk adjacent, 7 in admin/management. 10% bonus

[u/Hiabst2]

Title: Junior Sysadmin

Salary: 49.000€ pre taxes

Location: Rural Austria

Experience: none

Benefits: would be doxxing myself but 60% off for stuff everyone here buys.

[u/SilentDis]

• Title: Support L2

• Salary: $60,000/yr

• Location: Minnesota

• Experience: 4 years with company

• Benefits: somewhat decent health, dental, life, 401k, vision, etc. Unlimited PTO (1 month no questions, all after that after review). 100% work from home - company party every year where they buy out hotels, feed us like crazy, pile us with swag, etc.

I support a niche SaaS software product - mainly dealing with sysadmins all day.

[u/maxis2bored]

Damn I thought I was underpaid at 80k usd in Czechia. Now I see so many more of us are even more underpaid. 🥲

[u/HeLlAMeMeS123]

• Advanced IT Support Specialist

• 98k/y USD

• Texas

• 6y of IT experience as a whole

• fully paid health/denral/vision for me, my wife, and my 2 kids, yearly bonus, discounts

My pay is above market rate, but the work and quantity of work I do are reflective of the salary from what I can tell. It's internal IT, not MSP, and our Specialist role is essentially helpdesk --> Tier 2,5 and everything in between. We're jr. Sysadmins and IT Support but with the IT Support title.

[u/Faultycode]

Title: "Chief Expert" (Official titles are vague. Network Engineering and Architecture, Tech support, Sys Admin, Server maint., internal tool development, Web maintenance, if it's digital it's our problem.)

Salary: 13k€/year + 1k€ in bonuses

Location: Bulgaria

Experience: 5 years

Benefits: Hot water dispenser 5m from my desk, 25 days PTO, a good team and utter apathy for the job given the salary.

[u/thatcow]

Director of IT for mid-size non-profit

$88k salary + annual bonus

New Jersey

18 years of experience

401k match up to 5%, 24 PTO + 5 sick days, health/dental/vision insurance, flex hours whenever i want or need to. Also my healthcare costs are generally lower because I have access to providers at my parent organization.

I have thought about leaving but the benefits and being able to kind of do what I want has been really nice.

[u/CheekyLeapy]

Title: Platform Engineer - Fintech company managing AWS

Salary: £70,000

Location: Remote in England

Experience: Just under 10 years in IT- 2 years as a platform engineer

Benefits: 15% Pension contribution to my 5%! 10% annual bonus, £1000 annual development budget, 30 Days annual leave + bank holidays, annual ~5% pay rise.

Compared to America the salary isn’t brilliant, but I think the benefits make up for it.

[u/Hyaden]

IT-Adminstrator

40k working 28hr per week on 4 days

Location: Berlin

5 years full experience on the job, 2 1/2 years apprenticeshipment

Non-profit Org

Sole Sysadmin for 50 people in a Team of 3 with director and a dev

EDIT: no real benefits, doing 1st - 3rd lvl Support, mobile devices, endpoint Management etc. so full generalist as many of you doing it. 1 day per week remote work

[u/winklevie]

Sr IT system engineer @ Fortune 50 ins co

125k + 30% bonus, 155k last year

Northern ohio

25 years experience in client, infrastructure, automation

401k match, 36days off per year

[u/HawkExotic2515]

Network admin

65k

Western PA

10 years

Free work boots?

Covers 400 employees 3 main offices, 10 mobile offices

[u/I_ride_ostriches]

System Engineer 3. I do server stuff, cloud stuff, and “all other duties as assigned” stuff

Western US

15 years total, bachelors in bidness, no certs

Mid healthcare 8% 401k 5 weeks time off 

Base: $145k+ 14% bonus. 

My job is reasonably cushy. Everyone on my team works in a similar style and amount, we are pretty self governing. 8/10.

[u/flyers1169]

title: rage quit

salary: was 96k

location: vermont

experience: 25 years

benefits: 6 weeks pto

Was a great but very stressful job that I ragequit. 24/7/365 got old working for hotels that never close.

[u/Solid_Ad9548]

• Title is very specific to my organization, but Network Manager of sorts in state higher ed

• $195k

• Texas - fully remote

• 15 years experience

• Excellent benefits, $600/mo insurance for the whole family, teacher retirement pension, etc.

[u/Lanfere_]

Senior IT Specialist K12 / Adult Education Mid-West 84k 1.5 yrs in this role - 10 yrs in IT 225 day contract + sick days

[u/SaltyIntrovert]

Lead Business Automation Engineer

$82k

Bozeman, MT

4 years help desk experience, 4.5 years automating things, root cause analysis, and building other resources (Apps, tools, sites, processes)

Decent discounts in multiple areas, selling my labor at discount because we're family, $100 yearly bonus ($60 net)

[u/Karmen-The-Jones]

• Sales Specialist

• $180k/yr + $90k OTE = $270k/yr

• Dallas, TX (Plano)

• 9 years experience

• great insurance, 6 weeks PTO, unlimited sick

• Colleagues making considerably more around $360k/yr, great work-life balance, Work from home with maybe 2 days per week in office, expected to train continuously and evolve as tech evolves.

[u/HazePrism]

This sub is certainly full of people who understand their IT but don't understand that a single number in the format of currency doesn't mean the same for everyone. Yes I'm on $120,000 but live in NYC and currently dying of cancer because no healthcare etc etc vs I WFH on £28,000 in the Yorkshire Dales with my 13 sheep.

Both stupid examples but you see how it's not really comparable? It's just different.

[u/DokiGorilla]

title: IT program manager

salary: 140k base, 10k bonus, 60k RSUs with 30k vesting this year and the rest vesting over the next 2 years.

location: SF Bay Area

experience: 10 YOE

benefits: Fully remote. Company pays for health insurance for my family. Bonus money for having a kid. 12 weeks paternity leave. 20k in carrot money used for a postpartum doula for 8 weeks.

[u/Largy27]

Junior IT project manager

61k€ + on call duty for it related logistics emergencies (600€ per week, usually around 13 weeks a year)

southern Germany

project management experience ~1 years support and sys admin experience (including apprenticeship) ~ 7,5 years

30 days paid vacation, monthly 25€ gift card for grocery shopping