Project Idea: Collecting Data on Database Administrators Compensation

Jenna Anderson 2

My fellow Blackbaud Community users, 


I am proposing a data collection project within the Community to collect and analyze the compensation and benefits for Blackbaud Database Managers. Community Managers feel free to pipe in if there are any issues with this. 


I spent a decent amount of time in the Job Postings section trying to collect the salaries for positions that are listed there, which got me nowhere as only a couple of the postings listed a salary range up front (40-50k). This is understandable as most organizations do not disclose salary ranges on job listings (though they should in attempt at more equitable practices), and the closest my search came to salary discussions for us DBA's is this thread on how RE Certifications can impact our careers: https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/147/32392?post_id=158104#p158104. 


There is other information I'd be interested in collecting too, like: # of employees/volunteers you supervise, title, responsibilities, certifications, etc. So many of us share a common core list of responsibilities as DBA's, but then widely vary in other duties depending on the individual organization's we work for.  For now, I'd love to just hear other's input on this potential project.

I believe we could respect the anonymity of participants if they are uncomfortable having fellow users know their compensation by collecting the data in a Google Docs spreadsheet. I'd also love to hear anyone's input who has conducted their own research on this very topic!

Karen Stuhlfeier

I like the idea. It could be valuable to have when discussing salary with your current or prospective employer. 

Claudia Sauers

I like this idea. It's very difficult to get this information in general salary surveys and the information I have gotten varies widely. If you are a member of the RE users page on Facebook (I can't remember the exact name of the group) and search the word salary you'll find a survey monkey that was done a while ago that might give you some more to start with.

Tom Klimchak

I'm on board with helping any way I can.  In the past we've largely based salaries on historical listings posted on Indeed and Glassdoor. 


A few years ago we used the APRA Salary Surveys.  They broke salaries out by a lot of different factors and even gave us some ideas about titles and responsibilities.  We found them very helpful.

Christine Cooke 2

Definitely would be interesting to have this info on hand.  Like the others, there is such a broad spectrum of responsibilities beyond the data management portion depending on the organization.  The other thing, at least in the U.S., that affects the salary scale is the geographical area.  Folks in general have a much different cost of living in the middle of the country versus either coast.  I have experienced that one of the criteria that at least educational orgs do - is also compare the size of the population served (how many students enrolled/number of staff) in their comparisons on salary. 

Wendy DeCicco

Create a new Survey Monkey on Facebook with all the questions you want answered and most important..please remember to share the results. 

 

Crystal Bruce

Moderator here: I see no issue as long as no one is disclosing personal information. Thanks!

Jenna Anderson 2

Thank you so much to everyone for chiming in! I have created a new Survey Monkey and would love any input on the questions I chose, and for you to complete it! I am a part of a local RE User Group here in San Diego (Crystal Chouinard‍: can you distribute to the group)  and plan to ask them to complete it. I will also be posting it in the Facebook RE User Group.
Crystal Bruce‍ How do certain posts get featured on the Community Dashboard? 


Some of the questions are long in order to gather important information without going over the 10 question maximum for the free version of Survey Monkey:
Take the Survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SMJBJ9Z! 

 

Karen Stuhlfeier

Thanks for your work on this Jenna.

Crystal Chouinard

That is a great idea Jenna Anderson‍! You can talk about it in the meeting and then I can email the link out in the post meeting email/calendar invite. 

Jenna Anderson 2

Hi everyone and thank you to all who took the survey! I thought I would update you on the results so far: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-HPD522GJV/. As of this posting, I've had about 64 responses so far and am aiming for 100. I did notice that some respondents did not answer all of the questions fully. I hope this data is insightful to some of you!

Brinda Goswami

Thank you so much Jenna for this survey. Really truly appreciated.


Brinda

Daniel Bayer

This is wonderful and I hope it is helpful to everyone! Annual reviews here are coming up soon, and I hope I can use this data to negotiate a raise for myself.

Donna Mainord

Thank you so much for doing this.  It is an eye-opener.  It also shows me I am underpaid.  


Thank you again.  

Heather MacKenzie

Thank you for setting this up and sharing the results, Jenna Anderson‍!  I was hoping to find that I'm underpaid, but alas.  I still found it quite interesting data, especially the raise question.

Elizabeth Johnson

Looks like you only need ten more people to complete the form. If we (you) do something like this again I'd love to see how gender plays a role if any.


Thanks, Jenna Anderson‍!