Salary Survey Extra is a series of dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our annual Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

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Most people don't think about servers until they stop working. Even if it's just for a moment or two — a comparative availability hiccup — if the internet (or really any network of any size) doesn't perform the way we expect it to, then we take notice. Servers are the IT infrastructure that most people take for granted to an even greater degree than, say, household plumbing.

CompTIA Server+ (No. 45 on our most recent Salary Survey 75 list) validates the skill set needed to manage and maintain this critical infrastructure at peak performance more or less around the clock. Here’s what the salary picture looks like for CompTIA Server+ holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $111,440
Median Annual Salary: $102,140
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 8.4 percent
Very Satisfied: 19 percent
Satisfied: 40.5 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 23.8 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 8.3 percent

The CompTIA certification program has global reach, but we didn't hear from enough Server+ holders who live outside the United States to include their data here. So everything you'll read here is referencing only credential holders who live and work in the United States.

An imposing majority of the Server+ holders who responded to the survey are men (83.5 percent), but we did hear from a small cohort of female credential holders (13.6 percent), as well as from a tiny handful of those surveyed who either chose not to identify their gender (1.9 percent) or are gender variant/nonconforming (1 percent). We heard from credential holders of many different ages, but most are either between the ages of 35 and 44 (34.5 percent of respondents) or between the ages of 45 and 54 (38.1 percent). The outliers are a notably youthful 16.7 percent of credential holders who are between the ages of 25 and 34, along with 9.5 percent who are between the ages of 55 and 64 and 1.2 percent who are between the ages of 65 and 74.

More than 90 percent of the Server+ holders who participated in the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of education completed by most Server+ holders is either a bachelor’s degree (40.5 percent of those surveyed), master’s degree (32.1 percent), associate’s degree (11.9 percent), doctorate (4.8 percent), or professional degree (1.2 percent). The outliers are the 2.4 percent of respondents who exited the realm of formal education after completing some level of post-high school technical training, the 3.6 percent whose highest educational attainment is a high school diploma, and the 3.5 percent who are currently in school.

A solid 81.6 percent of Server+ holders who responded to the survey are employed full-time. The rest either have part-time jobs (1.9 percent of respondents), are primarily students (6.8 percent), are enjoying a sabbatical (4.8 percent), or are out of work altogether (4.9 percent). Among those who have full-time jobs, most either put in the standard 40 hours per week (38.6 percent) or are on the clock for between 41 and 50 hours per week (33.7 percent). The rest have a full-time work schedule of either more than 50 hours per week (14.5 percent of respondents), between 31 and 39 hours per week (8.4 percent), between 20 and 30 hours per week (2.4 percent), or fewer than 20 hours per week (also 2.4 percent).

In the post-COVID working world, 47 percent of Server+ holders are spending the lion’s share of those hours in a traditional workplace setting, working from home either fewer than 10 hours per week (31.3 percent of respondents) or between 10 and 20 hours per week (15.7 percent). The rest are notably more familiar with what has become the norm for many, working from home either between 21 and 30 hours per week (10.8 percent of those surveyed), between 31 and 39 hours per week (6 percent), 40 hours per week (19.3 percent), or more than 40 hours per week (16.9 percent).

In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of Server+ holders we heard from (25.2 percent of those surveyed) are employed at the senior specialist level. The rest, in descending order, are either managers or senior managers (both 15.5 percent of respondents), rank-and-file employees or directors (both 14.6 percent), specialists (9.7 percent), or executives (4.9 percent).

A bit more than half (52.4 percent) of the Server+ holders who participated in the survey are IT veterans, having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for more than a decade. The rest have been plying their certified skills for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (6.8 percent of respondents), between 3 and 5 years (also 14.6 percent), between 6 and 8 years (22.3 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (3.9 percent).

Finally, here’s the view of CompTIA Server+ holders on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:

At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification:
Several times a day: 44.7 percent
Several times a week: 28.1 percent
Several times a month: 6.8 percent
Occasionally: 12.6 percent
Rarely: 7.8 percent

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 43.7 percent
Agree: 28.2 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 15.5 percent
Disagree: 3.9 percent
Strongly Disagree: 8.7 percent

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 35.9 percent
Agree: 33 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 16.5 percent
Disagree: 7.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: 6.8 percent

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 28.2 percent
Agree: 43.7 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 13.6 percent
Disagree: 5.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: 8.7 percent

PAST COMPTIA SERVER+ DEEP FOCUS FEATURES

2021

2018

2017

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