CIOs' responsibilities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have increased, with the pay to match as the average annual salary hitting $260,000, according to a Sept. 20 report by The Wall Street Journal.
Five insights:
- CIOs are reconfiguring supply chains, speeding up automation in AI factories, moving healthcare services online through telehealth and have worked to avoid creating vulnerabilities hackers can exploit.
- CIOs and IT leaders are taking on greater positions of leadership. They are being named to corporate boards and adding vice president to their title, according to the report. Since tech is part of a company's overall strategy, the topic is coming up in board discussions all the time, Chuck Gray, head of U.S. Technology Officers Practice at consulting firm Egon Zehnder, told the Journal.
- In 2022, the average annual CIO salary is projected to be $260,000, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2021 after it rose 0.5 percent from 2020, according to the report. For comparison, CFO salaries are projected to rise to $242,00, up 0.3 percent from 2021.
- CIOs are also overseeing massive IT budgets. Worldwide enterprise IT spending is projected to reach $4.2 trillion in 2021, up 8.6 percent from 2020.
- IT executives are sprinting to keep pace with digital expectations from patients and consumers. Tech initiatives are in the fast lane and CIOs are needing to hire thousands of tech experts to keep pace.