As thoughts turn to those summer holidays, thoughts also turn to paying for them.

Latest figures from sector skills body e-Skills UK for the last quarter of 2006 show that the average gross weekly pay for an IT professional in the UK was around £34,500 per year gross. However this is somewhat below the average advertised pay rate for a permanent post of £38,500 per year gross and around half the advertised pay rate for a contractor of £64,000 (£1,230 per week gross).

Of course, these averages cover a wide range of IT jobs, and as is usually the case with averages mask a wide variation in pay.

If you work in the north east, north west or Northern Ireland, then you are likely to take home up to 30 per cent less than those employed elsewhere.

And if you are a woman, then you are likely to earn some £56 per week or nine per cent less than your male colleagues on average throughout your career, with the pay gap peaking in your 40s. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why working in IT appears to be increasingly a turn-off for women?

We are even receiving reports from some employees that they have not had a pay increase for a number of years.

As you head for the sun, whether in Bournemouth, Benidorm or Bermuda, are you being paid what you are worth?