Database Administration Salaries

A database administrator's earnings will vary depending on a number of factors ranging from level of experience to the geographic location of the job. Not surprisingly, the San Jose, California region, which includes the traditional tech-industry mecca of Silicon Valley, was the top-paying metropolitan area in for database administration, boasting an average annual salary of $99,780. In comparison, Little Rock, Arkansas—a region also employing a large number of database administrators—offers an average salary of $66,740, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2012-13 Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Whether you work in database design, storage management, data warehousing or another area of database administration, your area of expertise will affect on your salary. However, all subfields of database administration have recently been in high demand, especially those concerned with security and efficiency.

_{Sources: Salary.com, May 2012; Database Administrator; Database Administration Manager;  Oracle Database Administrator; Client/Server Database Administrator; Database Administrator, Sr.}

_{*The salary information listed is based on a national average, unless noted. Actual salaries may vary greatly based on specialization within the field, location, years of experience and a variety of other factors.}