Comparing IT Workers' Compensation Across Country Contexts: Demographic, Human Capital, and Institutional Factors.

Author List: Levina, Natalia; Xin, Mingdi;
Information Systems Research, 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2, Page 193-210.
As the IT workforce becomes global, it is increasingly important to understand the factors affecting IT workers' compensation in labor markets distributed across the globe. Ang et al. (2002) published the first in-depth analysis of compensation for IT professionals juxtaposing human capital endowment (education and experience) and institutional determinants (firm's size, industry, and sector) of compensation in the Singaporean economy. In this paper, we explore the influence of particular national economies on IT workers' compensation. We draw on research into the roots of wage differentials in labor economics and build on the Ang et al. research to present a multilevel analysis of IT workers' compensation in the United States, analyzing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey (CPS) data for 1997, 2001, and 2003. We find that, while institutional differences in Singapore mattered only in conjunction with individual factors, in the U.S. institutional differences had a direct effect on IT workers' wages. As tightness of IT labor supply decreased in the United States in the early 2000s, the influence of a firm's size on wages became more pronounced. Also, female IT workers and workers without a college degree fared worse than their male and college-educated counterparts as the IT job market slowed down. We suggest that factors such as presence of job search friction, diversity in the educational system, geographical differences in cost of living, labor mobility, and shortages in IT labor supply vis-à-vis demand help explain the differences among countries. We conclude by outlining the implications of these findings for IT workers, firms, and policy makers.
Keywords: compensation; hierarchical linear modeling; management of IT human resources
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#243 0.287 states united employment compensation labor workers paper work extent findings increasing implications concerns relationship managerial wage options offer salary entry
#173 0.115 effect impact affect results positive effects direct findings influence important positively model data suggest test factors negative affects significant relationship
#109 0.111 career human professionals job turnover orientations careers capital study resource personnel advancement configurations employees mobility jobs management individuals pay non-it
#145 0.087 differences analysis different similar study findings based significant highly groups popular samples comparison similarities non-is variety reveals imitation versus suggests
#164 0.074 countries global developing technology international country developed national economic policy domestic study foreign globalization world government nations innovative technological especially
#21 0.069 research information systems science field discipline researchers principles practice core methods area reference relevance conclude set focus propose perspective inquiry
#200 0.064 banking bank multilevel banks level individual implementation analysis resistance financial suggests modeling group large bank's services levels national data early
#192 0.055 small business businesses firms external firm's growth size level expertise used high major environment lack resources companies internally factors internal