Comments on: GIS Salary Expectations: Climb the GIS Career Ladder

By: GISGeography

GISGeography — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 12:56:25 +0000

In reply to Becca. Hi Becca. Hoping to provide another update in 2025. Thanks for checking in!

By: Becca

Becca — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 14:59:41 +0000

When will we see another update? The field has seen some recent changes in the past 2 years regarding responsibilities and salary.

By: Professional Cartographer

Professional Cartographer — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:58:01 +0000

Thanks so much for taking my comment under advisement and updating the salaries for this, it’s great to have this resource updated!

By: GISGeography

GISGeography — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 16:50:45 +0000

In reply to Professional Cartographer.

Thanks, I appreciate the heads up. And yes, the salary information was in desperate need of an update. That’s why I updated all salaries and put them all into new tiers.

Most GIS salaries received a bump up in earnings. But strangely, I think the career “geographer” was a bit too high in the last list of salaries. This is the only one that had a significant movement downwards.

Also, I should mention that the “Update for 2022” could be anything related to the post. I don’t have a “changelog” or anything like that in our posts. But the update was related to something different (not salary information). But now, this should be all updated.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading!

By: Professional Cartographer

Professional Cartographer — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 21:19:04 +0000

It’s extremely disappointing that you’re still using the same salary ranges as you were in 2016 (I have that exact same pyramid graphic saved on my computer from that year). While this post was a good source six years ago, I now find it concerning that it is being “updated” for 2022 without actually addressing how salaries have increased since your original publication.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 06:35:34 +0000

It should be noted the factors behind your salary go beyond your raw technical skill level. It has more to do with the funding source of your organization. For example, if you are working local government the odds are your going to get paid less than in State or Federal due to the relatively small amount of tax revenue they can pull in. That means a GIS Manager job there might be much lower compared to somebody with the Feds or an intelligence organization.

A contractor with the Federal government is a different matter altogether. Let’s say you work with a low overhead small business that’s a prime on a contract. They may pay you much more than you could ever make working even for the Federal Government. On the other hand, if you work for your typical big business as a contractor, you may get just a little more than industry average due to higher overhead. At the end of the day it’s up to what you want: security in one place, or the challenge of moving in different places and getting exposed to different projects. Sometimes if you stick to security you’ll get just that, and a significant pay cut over the years.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 17:39:25 +0000

I am agree with Roger Cottrell’s opinion.

By: Petar

Petar — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 13:45:52 +0000

GIS in archaeology is a great opportunity.

GIS will be the next big thing in archaeology. The future of archaeology will use mainly GIS for mapping the ground and analyze possibilities for future successful excavation.

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 19:28:17 +0000

Has anyone paired GIS with archaeology? There seems to be many developing applications of digital data sets in the field of archaeology (e.g., LiDAR, photogrammetry). I’m wondering if any readers here are applying GIS within the field of archaeology and have any advice on pursuing it.

By: Jason White

Jason White — Fri, 05 May 2017 19:25:32 +0000

@ Marc The GIS field is a fickle one to say the least. Over the last several years the industry has been saturated with people seeking ways to make their mark in this field. I currently contract for the government; personally enjoy this particular path as I work to finish off my MGIST. For me though, I have over 16 years in the military as an imagery analyst and have the educational backing to secure a salary at the top end of the spectrum. Essentially I can fill the role of an imagery analyst or geospatial analyst; they are cousins in the industry, but quite different in reality.

The private sector is full of opportunities as virtually every company in every industry uses GIS in some shape or form. If money is what you (or anyone) seek; the GIS programming/developing and Geospatial Scientists and Statisticians (those “big data” positions)
tend to pull the higher salaries from what I have seen.