GIS Salary Study
by
Victor Kao
City of Irvine
January 2, 2001

Sorry for the delay of sending this survey result out. I had the spread sheet completed 6 weeks ago but never had a chance to study all the job descriptions you sent me. I decide to send you the spread sheet first.

From what I read so far, I like the City of Santa Monica's job specs the best. You may look at their specs at http://www.santa-monica.org/personnel/jobspecs/.

One other observation is that the GIS salaries are higher if GIS is either under the Information Services Department or remains in the Public Works with an Engineer's title.

Currently, it seems GIS is still treated in most cities like data processing 15 years ago. At that time computers were a tool to make faster calculations, not many other tasks were dependent on it. We need to promote GIS beyond a tool to make maps faster. We need to make GIS the central part of your organization's spatial database. We also need to work on our job titles. I particular dislike the word "program" within our title (mine too). If people understand GIS is the acronym for Geographical Information Systems, then they wouldn't add the program after that. Have you ever seen an "IS program supervisor" title?

Salaries are listed from low to high or just high.

GIS Positions

Santa Clarita 
GIS Coordinator $60,528 to $73,572 
GIS Analyst $51,036 to $62,040 
GIS Technician $45,168 to$54,900 

Santa Monica 
GIS Program Coordinator $62,448 to $77,100 
GIS Analyst $59,568 to $73,536 
GIS Data Specialist $40,320 to $49,776 

Fullerton 
GIS Specialist $40,764 to $52,020

OCFA 
GIS Mapping Technician $42,000 to $54,000

San Juan Capistrano 
Senior Engineer $58,000 to $75,500
Engineering Technician $36,000 to $46,500

Carson 
Manager - GIS Project $47,424 to $60,516
GIS Specialist $40,884 to $52,176

Newport Beach 
GIS Coordinator to $68,040
GIS Analyst/Trainer $43,812 to $61,644
GIS Mapping Assistant $35,532 to $49,992

Irvine 
GIS Program Supervisor $56,205 to $79,535
GIS Analyst $45,007 to $63,689
GIS Application Specialist $36,607 to $51,803
Engineering Aide $31,009 to $43,880

MIS Positions

Newport Beach 
Operations Coordinator to $67,368
MIS Technical Support Specialist $41,388 to $58,248
Telecomm/Network Coordinator to $76,500
Communications Specialist $43,956 to $61,848
Applications Coordinator to $78,180
Applications Analyst/Trainer $43,812 to $61,644
MIS Technician $28,116 to $39,564