City IT contractors are being paid £50 per hour again for the first time since 2001, according to reseach by iProfileStats and the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo).
City IT contractors were last paid £50 per hour in June 2001, according to the research.
ATSCo chief executive Ann Swain called it "a psychologically significant milestone".
She added in a statement: "2006 could be the year when the ghosts of the dot-com era are finally laid to rest and IT pay in the City tops the £54 per hour record set during the height of the boom."
At the peak of the dot-com boom in December 2000, IT contractors working in the financial services sector earned a record £54 per hour on average. During 2002, as the market bottomed out, IT contractors in the City took home less than £35 per hour.