The salaries of PC Support and CompTIA A+ Certified Technicians

This is the CertBlaster “Meta Study” on the subject. A Meta study is a study of studies. These are useful exercises as they end up relying on a lot more data than their individual components (studies). The more data, the more reliable the information we can extract for it.

UPDATED! For the IT salaries in 2021, click here

However, we still have to remain really cautious about how we handle this data so we don’t have statistics just say what we want it to say. Although we tried to zoom in on the A+ certified individual’s salary when that data was not available we did not turn down good information on the pay levels that apply to help desk and PC Support Technicians. This means that some of the numbers below are not applicable specifically to A+.

Who is A+ Certification for?

The CompTIA A+ certification is meant to vouch for the skills and knowledge of an entry-level computer support or help desk technician. The A+ certification is often the very first credential earned by a new IT professional. A+ introduces the core IT domains such as PC hardware, troubleshooting & repair, software & OSs, networking, security, etc. at a foundational level. A+ comes with no prerequisites and does not necessarily expect prior job experience. Finally, the A+ credential is a requirement or elective in leading technology vendors such as IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, and HP. A+ is also recognized by the Department of Defense (in its directive 8570) as a level 1 skill.

CompTIA A+ certified technicians typically will pursue entry-level IT support and/or help desk positions as well as end-user support jobs. These are the common starting points for a variety of IT career paths and a great place to start to get your “foot in the door”. From there you can start accumulating real-world technology experience and move on to the higher-level certifications to keep advancing your career. Countless IT careers have started with A+ certification in hand, sometimes with an added associate degree, sometimes not even that just the A+ credential.

Because this is research in how A+ PC Support Technicians do, we have assumed in our conclusions that the individual stayed “true” to the CompTIA A+ job descriptions. This is especially relevant at our five-year point. Obviously, the IT pro that after a couple of years moves away from desktop support and into network support will earn significantly more than the one that stays in desktop support for five years.

The PC Support and/or A+ Certification Salaries

Source: payscale.com based on 1,022 actual salaries 12 July 2016, for 2021 IT salaries, click here

Average Salary for CompTIA A+ Certified Service Technician:

Important Note: One difficulty when trying to determine the impact of IT certifications in any salary surveys (this applies especially to CompTIA A+) it’s important to understand that several respondents own multiple certifications (more on this in the Global Knowledge study below). For example, an A+ certified professional is often also Network+ and MCP certified and this will inflate the aggregate A+ salary figure. This is a particularly important consideration when looking at A+ because it is an entry-level certification. As the A+ certified individuals gain experience and knowledge they will often take the next logical step like a Network+ certification and so advance their career and pay level.

Source: itcareerfinder.com, 13 July 2013, for 2021 IT salaries, click here

CompTIA A+

A+ Salary: $67,608

Experience Level: Beginner

We will discount this one as an “outlier” number. In our experience, no one has based on just having A+ certification, ever earned $67,000 on their first job. This kind of number will take a few years to get to for the A+ certified individual. There may even be a need to add a certification or two on top of A+ to get there.

Source: Global Knowledge, Inc., 2015 Salary Survey, for 2021 IT salaries, click here

Global Knowledge did not distinguish A+ from the other CompTIA certifications so the below number applies to people having A+ but also includes people that have A+ and/or Network+ and/or Security+ etc.

Certification: CompTIA mean pay is $73,963, median pay is $72,000. Total number of respondents: 2,314.

Interesting additional information on CompTIA certification provided by the Global Knowledge 2015 Salary Survey: “Certified IT respondents are more likely to hold CompTIA certifications than any other. In fact, more than 38 percent reported holding one or more CompTIA certifications, with an overall average of two. Twenty-five percent hold a CompTIA A+ certification, 20 percent hold Network+ and 15 percent hold Security+.”

Source: Robert Half Technology, 2016 Salary Guide, for 2021 IT salaries, click here

The Robert Half Technology study did not single out certified vs non-certified salaries so the below numbers do not inform us of the value of any particular certification. However, it remains an interesting insight into the earnings help desk technicians as well as PC technicians (highlighted in the table below). These are the professions most typically associated with a beginning A+ certified individual.

Source: Certification Magazine, Salary Survey 2015

11,753 certified IT professionals responded over the course of close to two months at the end of 2015. We don’t have the breakdown of the number per certification that is the overall number that answered for a total of 75 different certifications which works out to an average of ca 157 respondents per credential.

CompTIA A+ 2015 salary: $93,270, for 2021 IT salaries, click here

Obviously, this figure is for certified folks with at least several years of experience and probably additional credentials. The starting salary of a rookie will in many cases be less than half that.

Conclusions

First, we have to note that all these sources of data are not all comparable straight of the bat. We have to adjust some of the values to put them in the correct context so we can draw conclusions that will pass the sanity checks. We see some very significant variations and those are based on 1) years of experience, 2) the number and level of additional certifications (in addition to CompTIA A+).

Click on the link for research we did last year in an attempt to isolate the CompTIA A+ salary bump.

Regarding our numbers and data points above here are our conclusions. These apply to jobs that remain focused on Help Desk Tier 1 and PC Support.

A) Starting salary

> Expected average pay level nationwide:                            $40,000 – 45,000

> Geographical variations on above:                                        – $6,000; +2,000

> “Net” average salary (factors in geo):                                  $34,000 – $47,000

> Extra earned for A+ Certification:                                          About 12% (see here)

B) Salary at five years’ experience:

For this number, we have taken the average of the payscale.com number for the “Information Technology Specialist”. We have also added the Global Knowledge CompTIA average (minus 15% for A+ vs Network+/Security+) as well as the average of the Robert Half Technology salary guide for the three jobs that we highlighted above.

Below numbers are based on individuals that stick mainly to client computer support. These numbers will see quite the rise if the individual moves into more advanced network support or cybersecurity.

> Expected average pay level nationwide:                            $57,750

> Geographical variations on above:                                        -/+ $4,000

> “Net” average salary (factors in geo):                                  $53,750 – $61,750

> Extra earned for A+ Certification:                                          Insufficient data to determine*

*) After five years of experience it is difficult to ascertain whether the pay level has its roots in the employee’s performance, A+ certification, added certifications over the five-year span, etc.