Global salary gaps hindering automakers' efforts to lure IT geeks

Headhunter Casey Abel spent four months trying to hire a data center architect for a Japanese automaker, including five meetings with the client -- one with the top executive. In the end, the IT specialist joined an e-commerce company abroad for significantly more money. "There's just a massive mismatch in salaries," said Abel, managing director at recruiter HCCR K.K., who has spent as long as a year trying to land some IT candidates. "You've got some engineers making ¥20 million ($170,000) a year. Then you try to fit them in the traditional manufacturer-based salary structure" where it should be between ¥7 million and ¥9 million. Attracting the best information technologists is becoming increasingly important for Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. as they seek a bigger share of revenue from IT-driven services such as ride-hailing and cloud-based monitoring of vehicles.