A survey of nearly 1,200 SAP professionals in the U.S. has produced some interesting details about what they are paid, where they work, how many use visas, and what their job expectations are.
Among the more striking data points is the breakdown by gender. About 82% of SAP professionals are male. But this survey by Red Commerce, a global SAP consultancy and recruitment firm, did not find any differences in pay between the sexes.
Women are a minority in the IT workforce generally, and hold 26% of all computer-related occupations, according to an analysis of government data. Women in SAP occupations registered at 17% in this survey, well below the national average for computer occupations.
Another finding: Nearly a third of the SAP workers are on visas. Of the respondents, 54% were U.S. citizens, 31% were holders of temporary work visas, including H-1B visas, and 15% were green card, or permanent resident, workers.
Source: Red Commerce
Richard Vercesi, Red Commerce CEO, said use of staffing agencies that primarily employ visa workers to supply SAP workers is part of the model in the U.S.
In Europe, "90%-plus" would be European citizens, he said.
The pay is good (details on wage bands below), especially if you work as a freelancer and are willing to travel. Nearly 25% of the freelance SAP consultants reported hourly wages between $101 and $120.
Approximately 27% of the full-time workers said they earn an annual salary ranging from $100,000 to $119,000.
About 48% of the respondents worked at companies that represent SAP-partner organizations, which includes consulting firms. Another 42% work for user companies, and 9% at SAP.
The locations that have the highest concentrations of SAP professionals are Texas, at just over 14%, California, 12.5%, and New Jersey at nearly 8.5%. In fourth place was Illinois at 8%.
Vercesi attributed Texas' top place ranking to that state's oil and gas industry, which is a big user of SAP software.
Despite the high pay, it's not Shangri-La for SAP workers. About half of the SAP professionals reported no overtime payments, and said they worked up to five hours a month unpaid. That's a relatively new trend.
For employers, a strong word of caution: 75% of the full-time workers survey respondents said they will be looking for a new job in the next 12 months, with 33% of those searching for a new job in the next three months.
Vercesi said the number of people interested in new jobs seemed high, but it also follows a period where, in response to economic conditions, SAP users weren't investing in new technology. With tech spending rising, hiring is also up, and SAP professionals are searching for new opportunities.
In the search for new jobs, what will be especially appealing to SAP job seekers will be the ability to gain experience on new technologies, such as the in-memory computing system called HANA , said Vercesi.
The Red Commerce report is is available here.
Source: Red Commerce
This article, The data on pay, perks, gender and visas of SAP workers, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed. His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.
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