CIO Pay Accelerating At The Speed Of Technology

We have always suspected CIOs are worth their weight in gold. According to a survey by Mondo, they are, in fact, becoming weightier. Mondo describes itself as “the largest national staffing agency specialising exclusively in high-end, niche IT, Tech, Creative and Digital Marketing talent.” In theire 2021 survey, they stated that the average CIO salary has leapt by 21 per cent to $287,500 (annually) from last year.

We all remember 2021 as the year of recovery for businesses following the great digital transformation of 2020.

The more experienced the CIO, the higher their compensation is bound to be. The seasoned CIOs in the Free World should expect a hefty $350,000 base salary.

Mondo analysed the data from 2,500 placements it makes annually, pairing this data with insights from talent specialists in the field. According to WSJ, “Mondo estimates that salaries for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) rose at the same rate as those for CIOs—21 per cent—between this year and last.” Curiously, 2021 has also witnessed the rise of the Chief Marketing Officer (CM0) with a 15 per cent increase “in the same period.”

The boost in CIO compensation is self-evident. We all saw how technology became a critical part of the business during the pandemic. The CIO role experienced a hike, making their compensation increase inevitable. CIOs have had to rally business around automation, AI, cloud computing thanks to the future of work, not to mention the digitisation of the supply chain.

CIOs’ salaries in Africa have yet to enjoy a standardisation. Glassdoor speculates that the average salary of a CIO is $16,440 – which is quite doubtful owing to the level of skill and expertise required of a CIO, not to mention the nature of companies that hire CIOs, Heads of IT and IT managers as well as the cost of technologies they are required to handle and work with.

Payscale states that the average CIO in South Africa earns $77,843 per year. This is exclusive of bonuses and profit-sharing. “An experienced Chief Information Officer (CIO) with 10-19 years of experience earns an average total compensation (includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay) of $78,916 based on eight salaries.

In their late-career (20 years and higher), employees earn an average total compensation of $80,008.” It is a rather small pool to lay at the feet of thorough research. The top three skills that influence a CIOs pay in South Africa are strategic planning, leadership, and IT management.

Staffing Industry, based on Mondos 2020 calculations, revealed that “The data surrounding tech jobs found that skills for AI and machine learning, business intelligence and data, as well as DevOps and cloud are highly sought-after, with each category offering multiple salaries of $200,000 or more.”

But, 2021 was not the only year that has seen the rise of the CIOs compensation package. Mondo has been following up on this for a minute. In 2020, CIOs and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) topped the list of highest-paid tech professionals. CISO salaries ranged from $175,000 to $300,000 then with CIO and CTO salaries ranking second, ranging from $175,000 to $290,000.

Tech jobs with the highest salaries in 2020 were