On-call duty in the IT industry is an integral part of the work for many specialists. It requires the on-call person to have their laptop and phone at hand after hours on a given day - even on weekends or holidays. Most companies offer their employees additional compensation for on-call duty, but what is the amount? We conducted a survey among IT specialists, including programmers, administrators, and DevOps specialists. In this article, we present the results for these three groups and identify the most common practices related to on-call duty.

Survey

We distributed the survey on Polish IT forums and groups. In the analysis, we included responses from the following number of people:

Group	Number of respondents
SysOps / Administrator	22
Programmer / Architect	20
DevOps	11
TOTAL	53

Number of incidents during on-call duty

Among the 53 people included in the analysis, the answer to the question of how many incidents occur on average during on-call duty was "almost none" or "1-2 incidents per week." A significantly higher frequency was indicated by only 8 people (outside of these 53), and due to the particular burden of their on-call duties, we omitted them from the analysis of the results.

SysOps / Administrator

82% of respondents indicated that they are on call 24 hours a day. The remaining 18% for shorter periods - usually excluding nighttime hours from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM.

Form of compensation

The overwhelmingly dominant form of compensation in this group is a fixed rate per week of on-call duty. Only 1/4 of respondents do not receive any additional compensation for on-call duty.

 

	Fixed rate regardless of who is on call	55 %
	A percentage of the regular rate for the given person	18 %
	No payment - the obligation is included in the regular rate for the job	27 %

Compensation amount

On average, 735 PLN net (converted to B2B equivalent) is paid for 24-hour on-call duty over a week. The most common amounts are round figures like 500 or 1000 PLN net per week of on-call duty.

All respondents indicated that the rates are independent of how many days off fall within a given week.

The regular earnings of the respondents were distributed practically across the entire spectrum from 5,000 PLN to > 40,000 PLN, with more than half of the respondents in the range of 10,000 - 30,000 PLN. There was no correlation between the regular salary and the weekly on-call rate, which indeed suggests that this rate is independent of who is on call.

Programmer / Architect / DevOps

Due to the similar nature of the responses, we decided to combine these groups in the analysis. 77% of respondents declared that they are on call 24 hours a day, while 23% excluding nighttime hours.

Form of compensation

In this group, the form of compensation is more diverse: some have a fixed rate, and some have a percentage of their regular rate. Fewer people in this group are without additional compensation for on-call duty compared to SysOps/Administrators.

 

	Fixed rate regardless of who is on call	48 %
	A percentage of the regular rate for the given person	36 %
	No payment - the obligation is included in the regular rate for the job	16 %

Fixed rate

On average, with a fixed rate, 170 PLN net (converted to B2B equivalent) is paid per day of on-call duty.
1/3 of the respondents indicated that on weekends it is usually at least twice as much, and on public holidays even more.

The regular earnings of the respondents were distributed in the spectrum from 10,000 PLN to > 40,000 PLN, with more than half of the respondents in the range of 20,000 - 30,000 PLN. There was no correlation between the regular salary and the daily on-call rate, which indeed suggests that this rate is independent of who is on call.

We had too few responses from people on call for less than 24 hours a day to definitively determine how much lower their rates are. We can certainly say, however, that almost everyone in this group also receives some additional compensation for on-call duty.

Percentage rate

 

On average, with a percentage rate, 18 % of the regular hourly rate is paid for an hour of on-call duty after work.

1/5 of respondents indicated that on days off it is usually twice as much.

The regular earnings of the respondents were distributed practically across the entire spectrum from 5,000 PLN to > 40,000 PLN.

Summary

Most IT specialists receive additional compensation for on-call duty. 24-hour availability is the most common, but people on call for fewer hours a day also receive additional compensation for this time. The average rates for on-call duty are 735 PLN net per week for SysOps/Administrators and 170 PLN net per day or 18% of the regular hourly rate for programmers and DevOps specialists.