We were surprised to find that the size of a company, as determined by annual revenue, does not exert much influence on salaries. For some jobs, including designer, lead software architect and animator, company size makes no difference whatsoever. Company size does seem to play a consistent role in executive-management salaries. Web talent is paid at markedly different rates, regardless of company size. The lack of a clear trend in this area points to the tendency in the industry to compensate Web personnel solely on the basis of demonstrable skill.
Experience plays a small role in determining salary.
Despite a few surprising peaks and troughs in the findings, several basic trends emerged. Those new to the industry earn less, but this flattens out over time. Fifteen years' experience is not compensated much more lavishly than seven. Even for newcomers to the field, the data are inconsistent. Some of our respondents earned as much in their first year as did those with 20 years of experience.