A News.com piece links to an interesting report from neoIT on the comparative costs of hiring IT workers in various countries. The salary numbers are striking. Here are average annual salaries (in U.S. dollars) for IT professionals with two to three years of experience:

Vietnam: $5,404

India: $8,429

China: $8,799

Thailand: $10,272

Philippines: $10,256

Romania: $13,856

Brazil: $14,351

Costa Rica: $18,242

Russia: $18,503

Mexico: $19,932

Hungary: $22,211

Poland: $26,028

South Africa: $33,360

Israel: $36,821

Canada: $40,829

Ireland: $51,963

Wages are, of course, only one of the components of overall operating costs, but they’re by far the largest component, representing somewhere between 35% and 65% of total costs, according to the report. Wage inflation also tends to be highest in the cheapest countries, so current savings may evaporate over time as salary levels slowly converge. Still, with network technology making more professional work portable, it’s not hard to see the attraction of offshoring.