Business Tech

To stem continued losses, Sony said Thursday there will be no pay increases for non-managerial employees this year.

Sony doesn't give automatic raises every year based on seniority--unlike many other Japanese companies--but instead awards them based on responsibility and performance, according to Reuters.

It's the first time Sony has ever made such a move, but the company's financial circumstances give it few options. Sony is predicting an operating loss of $2.9 billion for the current financial year ending March 31, the electronics giant's first annual loss in 14 years.

It has already resorted to closing several factories, laying off 16,000 full-time and contract workers, cutting salaries for managers, and trimming bonuses.

Sony is just one of many Japanese electronics companies that have been hurt by the global economic downturn and a stronger-than-expected yen.

Hewlett-Packard is cutting salaries of EDS workers another 10 percent beyond what it first announced in February, ZDNet reported Friday.

Last month, the company announced salary cuts for all employees, ranging from 2.5 percent for nonexempt employees to 20 percent for the CEO, ZDNet said. HP also said it was making changes to employee benefits to save money.

According to a Friday memo obtained by ZDNet: "Unfortunately, we need to take additional action. Specifically, we have decided to make a temporary, additional reduction in base salary affecting EDS business unit employees in the United States and Puerto Rico."

The temporary salary reductions will go into effect next month and end in May, according to the memo, and workers who make less than $40,000 annually are excluded.

Hewlett-Packard acquired EDS in a multibillion-dollar deal last year.

Correction at 7 a.m. PST January 23: The 2006 growth rate in tech salaries was slightly off. It was 1.7 percent.

Salaries of tech professionals managed to spike up an average of 4.6 percent last year to $78,035, according to survey results released Thursday by tech career site Dice.com.

The survey results, ironically, come at a time when companies across corporate America are announcing layoffs, freezing wages, and even going so far as to temporarily institute wage cuts, like Advanced Micro Devices.

Dice, based on a survey of more than 19,000 respondents taken between August and November, found that certain sectors and job titles posted even higher percentage gains over the previous year.

The average annual salary for security analysts jumped 8.4 percent, compared with last year, while software engineers followed closely with a 7 percent gain, and applications developers rose 6.6 percent.

"The skills that are needed in technology change quickly, and employers realize they need workers with the most up-to-date skills," said Tom Silver, Dice.com's chief marketing officer.

He added that employers, as a result, are willing to pay a higher salary for such employees, especially if those skills aid the company in controlling costs.

Technology salaries in the computer hardware sector posted the largest growth last year, which climbed an average of 9.4 percent over the previous year. That was followed by the Internet services sector with an 8.8 percent increase, and the medical/pharmaceutical industry with a 7 percent gain.

But while the growth rate for technology salaries rose, on average, 4.6 percent last year, job seekers may not be as lucky in the new year.

"In another survey, we asked employers what they think will happen to salaries in 2009. About 25 percent said they will reduce salaries for new hires they bring in," Silver said.

As a result, he expects the overall growth rate for tech salaries to shrink in 2009, though he declined to estimate how much the percentage will retract.

Back in 2006, the growth rate in tech salaries was a mere 1.7 percent increase over the previous year. And in 2004, it actually declined 2.6 percent over the previous year.