Working in IT today is a tale of two trends: the best of times, as pay climbs precipitously; and the worst of times, as morale suffers due to declining staff and longer hours.

[See also: Salary survey by the numbers | Survey in PDF]

According to the 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey of 1,886 IT professionals, pay is inarguably on the rise. Nearly doubling last year’s moderate gains, overall IT compensation surged 8.8 percent this year, thanks to bigger salaries and even bigger bonus checks. Reduced competition for jobs and brighter prospects for company growth are spurring pay hikes across the spectrum of IT positions, flushing the post-millennial doldrums of subinflation raises from recent memory and replacing them with dreams of earning even more.

Yet personal gains have not slowed the downward slide of morale in most organizations. Difficulty convincing the suits to increase IT headcount tops the list of frustrations, as the erosion of perceived respect for the value of IT at many companies continues unabated. And to meet staffing needs on the cheap, the majority of companies are going overseas: Offshoring will accelerate past a symbolic tipping point by mid-2008 as more companies will rely on the controversial staffing model in the next 12 months than not.

IT pros may finally be partly getting their due, but they’re still dogged by the legacy of tight times. Lean staffs, years of low investment, and rising tensions along the IT/business divide threaten to prevent many organizations

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from capitalizing on new opportunities in a reasonably healthy economy. To wit, only 43 percent of tech professionals surveyed believe current investments in IT are adequate to support business goals, by far the lowest vote of confidence in the 10 years InfoWorld has conducted the survey.

Senior IT: Rising incentives

The unmistakable message of this year’s survey is more money. Better than three in four respondents received a raise this year, and for those who did, the bumps were bigger, at 9.7 percent vs. 7.4 percent a year ago. Ordinary IT staffers topped the chart of salary hikes this year, with an average raise of 11.5 percent. But being king still reigns, as tech exec compensation packages blended bonuses and salaries to the tune of a 12.1 percent take-home gain – the best overall return among the three employment categories (senior, midlevel, and staff).

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Sure, senior manager salary growth slowed this year to 6.3 percent, from 8.8 percent a year ago. But typical for those close to the corner office, bonuses proved key for senior managers looking to earn more. With 15.2 percent of total compensation -- $20,273 on average -- resulting from incentive-based pay, expect many top IT execs to promote game plans to buoy company performance.

“My bonus is based on the company meeting corporate goals,” says Bar Wiegman, senior director of IS at GlobalSpec, a vertical search, IS, and e-publishing company. “It is important that my team works closely with all of the different departments and project teams to ensure the underlying projects and work efforts are achieved.”