I know you asked this question over a year ago, but I'd like to chime in. I wonder how useful salary survey sites are. Or salary surveys in general. I'm looking very hard now for a new position. I had a recruiter contact me for a position in NYC. I live in New Mexico, so I'm thousands of miles away. The recruiter wanted me to tell him what salary I wanted. (That based upon no idea what the job was, what the industry was, etc. But oh well.) Recently Robert Half Technologies published their salary survey. So I got a copy of RHT's salary survey and made an estimate, based upon my experience and skills. I think I was wide of the true mark by a long shot. Unfortunately I don't know. I didn't get the job.

Anyway, the bottom line is that my confidence in salary surveys has gone down.