Money to be made in contracting
Averages salaries in relation to permanent and contracting staff's primary area of expertise*
Primary area of expertise vs salary
  Permanent staff Contractors
Area of expertise Monthly average Monthly average
Accounting / Financial R17 053 R27 225
Business analysis R18 178 R13 117
Business development / Sales R22 643 R37 200
Business intelligence / Decision support / Reporting tools R16 462 R21 919
Business process management / Workflow R17 950 R40 007
Call centre management R8 829 R8 438
Cellular systems / services R12 280 R4 584
Content management R14 531 R20 900
CRM R17 065 R21 922
Data centers R20 331 R14 167
Data warehousing R14 938 R17 667
Database development / management R18 188 R24 361
Desktop management / services R9 389 R8 761
Disaster recovery / Business continuity R12 898 R45 250
Document management / Imaging R9 954 R12 800
E-billing R18 582  
E-business / E-commerce R15 875 R22 825
E-mail / Messaging / Groupware R16 435 R26 083
Enterprise application integration (EAI) R21 351 R37 222
Enterprise architecture / SOA R22 640 R43 419
ERP R23 518 R23 955
Infrastructure management R17 453 R26 882
Internet / Connectivity R15 117 R19 001
IP telephony / VOIP R27 247  
IT governance R17 363 R18 312
Knowledge management R24 886 R15 861
Mobile solutions / Remote access R15 517  
Network applications R10 601 R10 417
Network infrastructure / Management / Services R15 681 R8 812
Open source / Linux R14 954 R5 903
Outsourcing / SLA management R19 979 R22 917
Project manager R17 633 R24 897
Risk management R25 454  
Security R18 584 R12 706
Server hardware R18 178 R7 000
Software development / Programming R15 480 R22 146
Software testing / Quality assurance R13 008 R20 552
Storage / SAN / Backup / Storage management R19 848 R29 287
Supply chain management R27 833  
Support / Help desk R9 069 R5 136
Systems Integration / Consulting R22 119 R15 740
Systems management R17 217 R19 330
Telecommunications equipment / services R18 839 R15 167
Training and e-learning R12 916 R15 826
Web design R13 736 R7 996
Web development R13 133 R15 474
Web services R15 169  
Wireless networks R19 511 R41 667
*Disclaimer: Although permanent and contractor monthly salaries are listed next to one another, direct comparisons are not possible as monthly totals are affected by many factors, such as company size, experience, responsibility, number of hours worked and hourly rates. In addition, permanent packages as a rule include benefits, while contractors' don't.