IT Contractors expect 10% pay hike in 2007

More than half of the UKís IT contractors expect an inflation-busting pay hike of at least ten cent in 2007. This is a key finding of the second annual CONTRACTOR EXPECTATION SURVEY, carried out by JSA, the UKís number one specialist accountants for IT contractors. The survey aims to gauge the ambitions and plans of IT specialists for the coming year.

58% of JSA clients surveyed said they expected to earn at least a double digit rise in earnings, and of these, a third said they aimed to gain a 15 % rise in take home pay. Despite this, 50% of the contractors who answered the survey thought that, at best, the IT contractor market would stay static in 2007 and 9% thought it would actually shrink

The survey reveals a generally high satisfaction rate with contracting, with only 18% of respondents saying they would like to return to full time PAYE employment. On a scale of 1(being very unhappy) to 10 (being extremely happy) as a contractor, 77% rated themselves at 7 or above. However, at the same time, 80.5% would like to find more challenging work in 2007. IT contractors are also shown to be generally self-confident about their approach to work, with 95% claiming to be good decision-makers.

While 74% of respondents said that the current opt-out clause in the EU Working Time Directive, which permits member states not to abide by a maximum 48-hour working week, should be retained, 61% said they would like to work less hours, with nearly half saying they would like to spend more time with their families. This may be because 90.5% of respondents are married or with partners and 70% have children.

Participants in the survey were also asked whether they had knowledge of any of the ten programming languages which were recently highlighted as the ëmust haveí skills for 2007 by E-week.com. The results showed considerable skill shortages.

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