how does compensation package in silicon valley for database
administrator compare with compensation package for database
administrator in hailey idaho |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
02 May 2003 17:15 PDT
It's generally fairly easy to compare salaries (not necessarily total
compensation packages) by state for a given job function like
"database administrator".
For instance, the average database administrator in California with 5
years of experience earns $91,000.
Would this type of information (including high/low/average salary
ranges) comparing California and Idaho suffice as an answer? If not,
please let us know very specifically what you are after, and we'll do
our best to track it down.
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Clarification of Question by
brianpregan-ga
on
03 May 2003 13:56 PDT
The trick to the question is the specific location within Idaho.
Hailey is 10mi south of Sun Valley, and consequently real-estate and
cost-of-living are not comparable to the rest of the state (resort
destination). Because the area is so small (pop. of Blaine county is
18k), and because there are few destination employers (vs. seasonal
tourist economy), it is difficult to get any independent information
about salaries and cost of living (I would surprised if there were
another dozen DBA's in the county). For example, we know that the
avg. median home price in Hailey was $260k 2-3 years ago and that it
averages 8-12% annual appreciation (10mi north and housing would start
in the seven-figure range). But compensation packages, of course, do
not always parallel housing costs. In one sense, the closest
comparisons would be locations like Vail and Jackson Hole, but we also
know that Sun Valley is, as a rule, cheaper than both of those
locations.
So the question is: I have 5 yrs experience with Oracle
Certification, but we are looking for an independent basis of
discussing salary with a prospective employer in *this specific
geography*. How do you define market value if the "market" is small
and illiquid, when the rest of Idaho trends under the national market,
but where this specific geography has quite expensive real-estate and
may have somewhat limited appeal to the general pool of tech job
seekers?
We have tried Monster, all of the Salary.com'ish places, etc. and are
looking for a fresh approach to form an indepenent basis.
Does that clarify?
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
03 May 2003 14:31 PDT
Yep...I'd say you're in a bind, at least in terms of generating solid
data to give you a hard and fast perspective.
One possibility -- the Idaho data I have for database admin salaries
covers a range -- low, average, high. You could certainly make the
case that your salary should be at the "high" end, given local costs
in Hailey.
There may be other types of data you could use as a surrogate -- real
estate prices, cost of living statistics, general labor cost data --
but I haven't looked in to any of these possibilities, and I'm not
sure how much they would help.
Beyond that, I have no other suggestions, except to remind you that
your would-be employer is pretty much in the same situation -- with so
few people in your position in the area, he/she is just as much in the
dark as you are.
Good luck.
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