17 Top-Paying IT Certifications For 2021 To Boost Your Salary
The annual Dice Tech Salary Report highlighted the 17 top industry and vendor certifications that can provide a boost to a technologist’s salary. Here’s a look at the list.
Certifiably Qualified
Technical certifications from IT vendors and professional organizations can be the keys to a successful career and higher pay for technicians, engineers, developers and others who possess critical IT competencies and skills – and can prove it.
That’s very clear in the 2021 edition of The Dice Tech Salary Report, which includes a rundown of 17 tech certifications that can really pay off for technologists.
The report says there has been a lot of debate about whether tech certifications are worth the time and money to earn. While some feel that demonstrating skills and experience should be enough, others say certifications are absolutely vital for a job – especially for certain specialized professions. Dice said such certifications can help a technologist stand out in a crowded market and provide leverage for negotiations for better roles, salaries and benefits.
As part of the Dice report, a survey of technology professionals in mid-2020 found that 45 percent had at least one of the technical certifications, down from 47 percent in 2019.
The following is a look at the industry’s top 17 tech certifications, based on the salaries earned by those who hold them, according to Dice. Listed alphabetically, we include information about the percentage of the technologists responding to the survey who hold that specific certification and the average salaries (in 2019 and 2020) for technologists with those certifications.
Agile and Scrum
2019 Salary: $121,010
2020 Salary: $120,917
Percentage Holding Certification: 15%
AWS Certified Developer
2019 Salary: $114,615
2020 Salary: $127,358
Percentage Holding Certification: 2%
AWS Certified Solutions Architect
2019 Salary: $126,449
2020 Salary: $125,214
Percentage Holding Certification: 6%
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
2019 Salary: $114,652
2020 Salary: $123,524
Percentage Holding Certification: 3%
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
2019 Salary: $135,004
2020 Salary: $146,730
Percentage Holding Certification: 2%
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
2019 Salary: $135,965
2020 Salary: $143,501
Percentage Holding Certification: 5%
Certified ScrumMaster
2019 Salary: $123,605
2020 Salary: $126,333
Percentage Holding Certification: 9%
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
2019 Salary: $99,421
2020 Salary: $101,254
Percentage Holding Certification: 9%
Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
2019 Salary: $112,410
2020 Salary: $121,082
Percentage Holding Certification: 3%
CompTIA A+
2019 Salary: $76,504
2020 Salary: $78,629
Percentage Holding Certification: 21%
CompTIA Network+
2019 Salary: $81,404
2020 Salary: $82,656
Percentage Holding Certification: 14%
CompTIA Security+
2019 Salary: $92,614
2020 Salary: $93,987
Percentage Holding Certification: 15%
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
2019 Salary: $112,367
2020 Salary: $115,464
Percentage Holding Certification: 12%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
2019 Salary: $121,158
2020 Salary: $130,215
Percentage Holding Certification: 3%
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
2019 Salary: $97,601
2020 Salary: $99,550
Percentage Holding Certification: 17%
Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE)
2019 Salary: $110,856
2020 Salary: $115,528
Percentage Holding Certification: 9%
Project Management Professional (PMP)
2019 Salary: $124,100
2020 Salary: $126,281
Percentage Holding Certification: 12%