The occasional light expression

From a recent IxDA post, I found some good references for US salaries of Interaction Designers and Usability Engineers. The salary ranges show a skew which would disappoint most opponents of the labor arbitrage angle of outsourcing - On an average, designers and usability professionals in America make an average of $65000 whereas their Indian entry level counterparts in blue chip product or services organizations are still paid somewhere in the $10000 to $15000 range.

This makes me wonder - If MBAs coming out of India are now being paid extremely competitive salaries since they form the backbone of business success, why are designers not paid more money than say, the average Quality Assurance Analyst, or the average template-driven software developer who’s hacking together a bunch of APIs lifted from the web. Didn’t Bruce Nussbaum note not too long ago in Business Week– “When people talk about innovation in this decade, they really mean design”.

If business innovation is essentially about design innovation, why are designers not considered at par with business professionals? For those interested in some number comparisons, check out the following links:

http://www.indeed.com/salary/Usability-Engineer.html

http://iainstitute.org/pg/salary_survey_2006.php

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/salaries.html

http://www.peakusability.com.au/resources/usability-salary-survey.html

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/salary.html

http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/survey/2000_survey.html

http://www.spiritsoftworks.com/resources/2004-salary-survey.htm

http://www.designsalaries.org/