The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES (P@SHA) on Tuesday released its 2017 IT Salary Survey report that provides an analysis of the average salaries, growth, promotions and benefits for the IT & IT Enabled Services sector employees in Pakistan. With over 450 member companies nationwide the IT & ITES Industry of Pakistan provides direct employment to around 120 thousand people and indirect employment for another 50 thousand. The tech industry in Pakistan relies on this human resource to maintain its double digit growth year on year.
Companies want the best talent working for them and take measures to retain their star performers. Fair compensation and benefits rank highly for any employee who wishes to work for, and continue to grow in this industry. The rapidly evolving nature of the tech sector influences job requirements & skill set, making an annual IT Salary Survey a necessary tool for companies wishing to hire and retain the best talent.
Jehan Ara, President P@SHA, said: "The IT & ITES industry of Pakistan is now being recognised by our government as the leading sector capable of pushing economic growth. The economic dependency is shifting from an agrarian and industrial economy to a knowledge based economy.
Persistent and effective policy advocacy by the Chairman and Members of the Central Executive Committee of P@SHA has convinced the authorities to not only extend the income tax exemption on exports till 2019 but also exempt technology start-ups working domestically from income tax for the initial three years of their operations.
This is an unprecedented move to encourage the growth of technology businesses in Pakistan and one that comes with added responsibility for us to outperform ourselves. It is imperative for us to document our industry, allowing us to study trends and devise the best strategies for growth. The P@SHA IT Salary Survey is a step towards this goal, which helps identify industry benchmarks for payroll; an expense which accounts for more than 50 percent of our business costs."
It may be added that the P@SHA IT Salary Survey has been conducted by P@SHA since 2008 for the IT & ITES Industry. The 2017 edition features findings from130 companies all over Pakistan, and has compiled data of 31,801 employees working in 28 job roles and 98 unique job levels in both IT and non-IT capacities. All roles are further broken down into experience levels. The survey provides changes in salaries for each job function and level (entry, mid and senior level) as well as the increments, bonuses and benefits that are offered to the employees.
The survey reveals there has been an overall average increment of 16.37% in salaries across all job functions when compared to 2016. The highest paid job function is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who on average earns PKR 520,650 (which is an increase of 7.46% over 2016). The highest increase in salary this year has been witnessed in Entry Level Game Designer role with a growth of 38.52%. On the other hand, the position of a Senior BPO Professional witnessed the smallest increase of 3.31% in salary. Detailed findings for each of the 98 job levels are presented in the P@SHA IT Salary Survey 2017.
The report is provided free of cost to participating members of P@SHA while it remains a paid publication for everyone else until June 2018. All reports of previous years are available for free download at www.pasha.org.pk