According to the latest Game Developer Salary Report, the average salary has taken a nose dive. The decrease is attributed to a large influx of entry level personnel, with the highest increases going to veteran employees.

According to the new survey, conducted in association with Audience Insights, the average salary in 2006 over all American game programmers was $80,886 – basically flat on the year before, thanks to an influx of entry level coders to the game business, but with significant increases for veteran programmers.

The 2006 average for artists was $65,107, again basically flat on 2005, though average salaries of experienced lead artists and animators rose the most. The game designers’ average was $61,538, with salaries scaling within a $5,000 range over the last 3 years over all experience levels.

In other categories, production personnel in America had an average salary of $77,131 in 2006, Q/A’s average decreased to $37,861, the average audio employee was paid $69,935, and business & legal personnel came out on top with an average $95,596 salary last year.

Source: GamaSutra