What do HIT Professionals Make?

HIT professional compensation—the highs and lows

The annual HIMSS Compensation Survey provides a snapshot of the salaries earned by healthcare IT professionals during 2015. The survey draws together information from a wide variety of roles within the industry. The data provides a glimpse into the average amounts paid in the industry, and how those salaries compare, based on a variety of factors.

Average HIT salary tops $110,000

The HIMSS Compensation Survey pools information from 1,900 respondents with a wide range of titles. Included in the survey sample are executive level titles (chief executive officer and chief information officer, for example) to clinical titles (chief medical information officer and clinical systems analysts) to IT project managers and sale professionals. HIMSS reports that the average salary in the sample was $111,387.52, with a median salary of $90,000.

High, low average salaries by region

If you’re in the Pacific region (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington), consider yourself fortunate, as respondents there reported an average salary of $127,117. The West South Central Region (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas) was at the low end, with an average of $101,281.

Average salaries in other regions were Mid Atlantic, $121,178; South Atlantic, $116,388; New England, $113,493; Mountain, $109,959; East South Central, $107,966; East North Central, $103,109; and West North Central, $102,522.

Average salaries by type of organization

Not surprisingly, respondents working for consulting firms had the highest average salary, reaching $140,971. Those from multi-hospital systems reported the lowest average salary, at $99,305.

Average salaries in other types of organizations were healthcare system (corporate), $119,273; hardware company, $118,167; accountable care organization, $117,316; health information exchange, $116,179; software company, $114,251; stand-alone hospital, $112,657; other healthcare facility, $105,677; and ambulatory facility, $102,878.

Average salary by profit status

Those working for organizations that are for-profit and private reported the highest average salary of $116,726. Those in the government sector were the lowest, averaging $100,645. Respondents at for-profit public organizations earned $114,878, while those at not-for-profit organizations had an average salary of $110,255.

Average salary by job classification

Those in executive management positions earned the highest average salaries in healthcare IT, reaching $196,472. Senior management checked in at $163,217; department heads earned an average of $132,089. Managers’ average salary was $104,897. Staff salaries averaged $86,294, while associate staff earned an average of $69,104.

Average salary by organization’s annual net revenue

In general, the larger the organization, the higher the average salary, but there are some twists on either end of the spectrum. For example, the highest average salary was $142,950, reported by those whose organizations had revenues of $500 million to $999 million a year; that even eclipsed the average annual salary of $134,200, for those working at organizations that had more than $1 billion in revenue.

Other revenue sizes, and their average annual salaries, included under $5 million, $114,168; $5 million to $9 million, $107,624; $10 million to $29 million, $116,010; $30 million to $49 million, $109,943; $50 million to $99 million, $126,254; $100 million to $499 million, $133,344.

The longer you’re there, the more you make

In general, those who work the longest in a position had higher average salaries. However, respondents in a position for 15 to 19 years reported an average salary of $117,157, while those in positions for 20 years or more had an average salary of $115,864.

Those in positions for 10 to 14 years earned an average of $114,064. Average salaries of five to nine years averaged $111,527, while those in the job for one to four years reported an average salary of $111,167. Respondents in positions for less than a year earned an average of $107,517.

Average salaries of males are significantly higher

The HIMSS Compensation Survey reported an average salary for males of $126,262, compared with an average salary for women of $110,752.

About half of survey respondents received bonuses

Some 47.3 percent of respondents reported that they received a bonus in the past year. Those that did received an average bonus of 5 percent to 6 percent of their salary. Some 12.2 percent of respondents received a bonus of 10 percent or more of their salary.

Salary increases reported by most respondents

More than three quarters of respondents (77.4 percent) reported that they received a raise as of June 1, 2015. The average raise for all respondents was 3.91 percent.