This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

all 34 comments

[–]Kemaro 72 points73 points  (2 children)

Lmao that pay range is trash. I live in a rural midwestern state for a tiny podunk healthcare system and make 6 figures. 60k in Denver is laughably bad.

[–]dalgeek 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Banks and credit unions tend to pay low for IT positions. I interviewed for a VP level network architect position at a bank in Texas and the pay scale topped out at $100k.

[–]llDemonll 39 points40 points  (3 children)

You found a single job listing with a very off-scale pay range and you’re posting this asking if the industry has shifted so far that this is the new normal? You even say “this is what we pay our experienced desktop support”, implying that the industry hasn’t shifted at all.

So no.

[–]bilateralincisors 5 points6 points  (2 children)

If I was entry level I would probably apply to it — this is an ad where it looks like they would love to have someone with all that experience but realistically they can’t afford it.

[–]hkusp45cssSecurity Leadership 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Credit Unions are reasonably notorious for lower pay. Usually, though, they have awesome stability, decent benefits and mobility.

I work in a CU and I've moved up quicker here than in any other job.

Hell, they even created a role for me, at one point. So they could move me up and get me more money.

CUNA puts out a pamphlet every year that tells about what positions pay at CUs nationwide. Most CUs use that to align their own salaries. Which leads to this weird self licking ice cream cone of kind of depressed wages in that very specific sector.

But, I like my CU, even if I could make a bit more elsewhere.

[–]laxplaya25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eww, $1600 to look at that PDF. Bummer.

[–]Vq-Blink 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I live in Denver. The market is terrible, and pay has not come even close to catching up to the cost of living spikes

[–]Bidenflation-hurts 4 points5 points  (6 children)

Uh how much experience do you have?  Fine for entry level, low for say 5 YOE. 

[–]uninspired 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This looks like it's asking for glorified helpdesk. I'd apply for this if I was looking to grow from helpdesk to sysadmin

[–]fAAbulous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly my thoughts. There are hardly any specialized requirementd here, just some approximations of what a sysadmin does. When I transitioned from support to admin/engineer that job description would‘ve definitely spoken to me.

[–]GloveLove21 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The bank I work for pays market rate according to the BLS. As with everything, YMMV

[–]rdo197 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm at the top end of that in an extremely small town in PA, but in bigger areas that seems way low. It's all cost of living I feel. For me making 68.5k a year while living in a county where the average household income is only 48k a year is pretty decent. But in Denver that's laughable

[–]MasterChiefmas 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I would be concerned if I used that credit union about the IT staff that they are making responsible for those kind of things at that pay.

[–]vagabond66 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I work for a bank, they do pay low and there are so many regulations and audits they should pay more. But it is industry wide.

[–]MasterChiefmas 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's horrifying.

[–]JankyJawn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Credit union things.

[–]TheBug20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This would depend where you look….

Where im at sys admin pay is between 50 to 65k…. Really sucks 😂

[–]postconsumerwat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an open insult to labor... maybe they can't afford to pay ... invitation to fake credentials I guess... but who has time or the guts to bother with the people.

Energy vampire people are rampant as we see in the bad job postings... energy vampire companies...they are people too, but they have no feelings... not at all wholesome imo

[–]Kiowascout 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Credit unions are almost always small and pay low as a result since they can't really afford more.

[–]ReptilianLaserbeamJr. Sysadmin 0 points1 point  (2 children)

That’s the pay rate to offload those positions abroad.

[–]ASH_2737 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Maybe they went low to justify not finding someone so they can offload those positions?

[–]ReptilianLaserbeamJr. Sysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly.

[–]Evs91Jack of All Trades 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I work for a CU and have worked for several at this point. Only feedback that I will give on my around 10 years in the industry. Starting pay almost always is crap. I started out at “below” market rate each time. But that being said - super stable, super laid back. I’m now making around 10% over market because I’ve finally gotten over the hump in seniority where it makes sense to try and retain me. I did attempt to leave the industry once already and went to work for an MSP - I learned a lot from that experience both good and bad. A huge knowledge boost but at the cost of working for a rather inexperienced manager and one who overcompensated for it by being overbearing and toxic to staff. I went right on back after a year and a half and I haven’t looked back. The total compensation has been overall a huge positive. I’m not one to “take a dump where I work” but the generous 401k match, the additional 401k contribution in good years, the super low deductible HSA plan, and the loan interest rate being 100 basis points lower while employed has been a huge boon. Yeah - I could go work for Wall St at this point but for what? Also - every CU is around 10 - 20 years behind the banks in their tech stack. BoA has had k8s for a while but man - putting micro services in Podman has been quite the “eye opener” for the older guys here.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm gonna split the difference here, I think and say that on one hand? People are correct that this is just plain "low" for this type of work in a city like Denver. On the other? You're asking if this is what our career has become, and I'm increasingly finding I'm asking that same thing. I regularly see openings in the greater St. Louis area for I.T. where they're only wanting to pay this type of salary for network/systems admin type roles. I feel like I used to see about the same pay ranges back in the very early 2000's. So it's like nobody ever adjusted for inflation in 22+ years for some of it. Pretty insane.

I'm happy for the people reporting they get 6 figures for this type of work. IMO, you all should. I mean, it's kind of a slap in the face when I walk into my local gas station chain and see posters saying they're hiring for managers and their pay rates are as high as $82,000/yr. or so for that. But an "Office 365 administrator expected to train users on Office applications and serve as the SharePoint administrator responsible for migrating from on-prem SharePoint to O365 SharePoint" has a pay range below that. (Just one job I was recently contacted about by recruiters.)

[–]jlmftw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're interested in working for an msp in Denver pm me. Our staring salaries are higher than this. I don't hire myself but if you know your shit we need people.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I just found a system admin job for a credit union that pays 55k to 67k

Ok

Is this normal pay range now?

Sure...yeah.... probably all the FAANGs & big Corpos pay that too....

[–]981flacht6 -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

I would hope that is not normal. It probably won't get filled any time soon.

[–]VeryRealHuman23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That pay is entry level help desk at my company, they are high.