The following information was taken from the URISA 2017 Salary Survey for IT/GIS Professionals. The full comparison report between GISPs and non-GISPs is available as a PDF file.

We anticipate working with URISA on a new salary summary in 2023

Access the 2017 Salary Survey Summary

Download the 2011 Salary Survey Summary

 

                                                   Highlights from the 2011 / 2017 reports:

How many years of GIS professional experience do you have? (2011)

GISP

Non-GISP

Average
12.1 years

Average
8.7 years

Median
11.4 years

Median
7.5 years

 

What is the highest level of education you have attained? (2011)

GISP

Non-GISP

Bachelor’s degree or higher              
87.7%

Bachelor’s degree or higher 
84.0%

Postgraduate degree(s) 
41.8%

Postgraduate degree(s)                   
35.5%

 

Please select the range that most closely describes your salary for calendar year 2017.

GISP

Non-GISP

Average
$76,632

Average
$66,550

Median
$73,000

Median
$62,000

 

What additional forms of compensation, if any, does your organization offer? 2017

 

GISPs

Health insurance

  91.5%

Paid conference attendance

72.3

Paid training

63.9

Retirement plans

61.1

Membership dues in a professional organization

46.3

Professional certification reimbursement or support

47.0

401(k) plans (or similar)

56.6

College tuition reimbursement

37.9

Bonuses

27.0

Stock

7.7

Life Insurance

68.2

 

What GIS and geospatial skills are required for your job? (2011)

 

GISPs

Non-GISPs

Data analysis

  90.9%

  82.8%

Data acquisition and creation

85.3

78.1

Data  manipulation

85.0

77.3

Editing and querying GIS data

84.6

76.6

Cartography and visualization

79.0

75.4

Database design

77.7

68.9

Database maintenance

77.0

64.5

Map composition

69.7

61.7

Project P planning and implementation

65.2

55.6

Data visualization and reporting

64.9

54.5

Quality assurance/Quality control

63.6

54.0

Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

62.1

53.3

Data modeling

61.4

52.0

Geocoding

61.1

49.5

Application development

54.7

41.9

Database/Systems administration

53.6

39.9

Geospatial management

49.1

39.1

Maintain GIS Web capabilities

43.7

33.2

Programming

43.5

31.8

Systems design

38.2

25.5

Photogrammetry

22.5

23.4

Remote sensing

21.0

21.4

Geocomputation

17.9

13.6

What other skills are required for your job? (2011)

 

GISPs

Non-GISPs

Project management

  83.2%

  74.7%

Technical support

77.7

72.5

Teaching/Training

72.0

62.6

Public speaking

68.2

60.9

Report writing

66.0

59.3

Research

61.8

59.0

Budgeting

58.7

51.0

Personnel management

57.4

50.6

Mathematics

39.1

36.6

Cost benefit analysis

38.9

34.1

Statistics

30.7

30.2

Sales/Marketing

25.2

17.8