System Administrator, Fact 7: They’re expensive

According to the BOLS data, average annual salary for a “Network and Computer System Administrator” (job code 15-1142) is upwards of $80K (this is a National average, mind you. Local salaries may differ based on a particular geography).

What’s more, the cost of System Administrator turnover is high – especially for the good ones.

According to the Center for American Progress, not only will 20% of your System Administration staff find a new gig each year, but you’ll “find other opportunities” for 17% of those who remain. However, it will cost you an additional 21.4% over and above their annual salaries just to replace them.

So let’s do the math:

If you have a department of 10 system administrators, with an average salary of $80K each; and you lose 2 each year to job-hopping, plus 1 more to “other opportunities”. You’re going to spend about $50,000 just to get the bodies back, let alone the skills.  And that number doesn’t include salaries and corporate expenses, hits to system performance and productivity due to resource gaps, and the cost of knowledge leak, etc..

See our blog or read more System Administration facts at these blog posts: