IT salaries-India cheap, Vietnam even cheaper
By agencies   |   Thursday, 02 June 2005, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: A new survey by neoIT has found that the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam has the cheapest IT labor among all offshore destinations including India. But the report also says that India is still cheap despite rising salaries. For an average annual salary of $3,276, companies can hire entry-level Vietnamese programmers and help-desk staffers, neoIT says. A Vietnamese IT worker with two to three years experience will settle for about $5,400, while a manager with five to eight years experience is paid about $8,500. However, there's a limit to what companies should expect if they send work to Vietnam. The country, neoIT says in its report, "is hampered by the scarcity of professionals competent enough to handle complex IT applications and processes." That could lead CIOs searching for a bargain to South Africa, the second-cheapest outsourcing destination among countries ranked by NeoIT. South Africa's midlevel IT workers earn about $6,000 annually, on average. What's surprising about neoIT's findings is that India, where offshoring has boomed over the past several years, remains one of the least-expensive destinations despite skyrocketing demand for its labor. Entry-level workers in India earn an average salary of $5,443 and midtier workers about $8,400, while experienced managers pull in roughly $13,100. India still has "an abundant supply of competent labor" to keep prices in check, neoIT says. China, an emerging offshore competitor to India, is actually already more expensive than its rival. Entry, midlevel, and experienced IT workers in the People's Republic earn average annual salaries of $5,460, $8,800, and $13,730 respectively. And the most expensive offshore destination? It's Singapore, where midtier workers earn $38,000 and managers take home about $60,000 annually.

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