News Feature | January 4, 2016

HIT Salaries Down, Worker Satisfaction Up

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

drug and healthcare cost

Satisfaction among healthcare IT personnel is up 3 percent from last year, despite reports of decreased salaries.

According to a HealthITJobs.com survey, job satisfaction among health IT workers is at 83 percent this year, up from 80 percent in 2014. Despite the increase in satisfaction, more than half of survey respondents said they will look for a new job in less than a year, and 31 percent said they were not sure if they would stay in their current job. Reasons for dissatisfaction included current income, excessive workload, and workplace politics.

The average health IT salary is $87,443 this year according to iHealth Beat, down from $89,873 in 2014. According to experts, the 2015 decrease in average reported salary “can easily be explained by the standard deviation,” further noting, “Those who tend to worry will wonder if this represents a trend of declining value on the role that health IT professionals play in healthcare” but that health IT jobs are not in danger, and salaries “that accompany them will likely get more attractive as the competition for talent gets tougher.”

By region, health IT professionals earned on average:

  • $99,536 in New England
  • $97,620 in the Mid Atlantic
  • $97,381 in Mountain states
  • $90,401 in Pacific states
  • $91,239 in the Southeast
  • $90,259 in the Southwest
  • $80,311 in the Midwest

Positions with the highest salaries include:

  • Executives ($182,036)
  • Project managers ($107,674)
  • Health IT managers ($105,235)

The average desired salary is $105,631. The report noted, “The average gap between what they earn and what they think they deserve is pretty significant at around an $18,000 difference.”