Bulgaria's IT managers were among the poorest paid in the world, international HR consultancy Mercer said in a sectoral salary survey for the year.

With an annual pay of $22 240 (15 561 euro), they lined just above their Vietnamese colleagues ($15 740 or 11 013 euro) and the Philippines ($22 280 or 15 588 euro). India's IT managers ranked fourth with an average annual pay of $25 000 (17 491 euro).

Managers of Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium earned the most with an annual salary of $140 960 (98 622 euro), $123 080 (86 112 euro) and $121 170 (84 776 euro), respectively.

The survey saw a correlation between the level of competence and pay vary by country. The largest variance in pay was seen in Indonesia, India, Brazil, Chile and Vietnam, where low-tier managers would get times less than their senior counterparts.

The survey covered IT specialists in 545 companies in a total of 35 countries.