By Peter Behr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 8, 1999; Page E4

Software engineers and network analysts are leading the technology paycheck parade, registering the largest wage gains over the past three months in an online survey at washingtonpost.com.

The median, or midpoint, salary of software engineers who filled in the survey, taken from December to February, was $66,560, a 7.5 percent increase over the $61,900 recorded in the September- to-November quarter.

Next were network analysts, with a median salary of $57,000 in the December- February quarter, up 3.6 percent from the $55,000 of the previous quarter.

Client server systems developers reported a 3.1 percent increase, from $64,000 to $66,000.

Systems engineers and systems administrators did not register pay gains, while the median wages in some occupations declined between the two quarters.

Database administrators, for instance, dipped from a median salary of $60,000 in the September-November period to $48,595 in the most recent quarter.

The survey does not report wage changes for the same individuals over the two periods. Relying on the accuracy of the responses, it provides contrasting snapshots of salary information from several hundred Washington area tech workers in each job category.

JOB TITLE MEDIAN SALARY 9/98 - 11/98 MEDIAN SALARY 12/98 - 2/99 % CHANGE Software engineer $61,900 $66,560 7.5% Network analyst/specialist $55,000 $57,000 3.6% Client/server/GUI system developer $64,000 $66,000 3.1% Systems engineer $68,900 $69,070 0.2% Systems administrator $50,000 $50,000 0% Technical support $40,000 $40,000 0% Programmer/analyst $55,000 $52,750 -4.1% LAN administrator $50,000 $46,100 -7.8% Web programmer $52,000 $45,500 -12.5% Database administrator $60,000 $48,595 -19.0%

Source: washingtonpost.com ongoing salary survey