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Mr. Gates Goes to Washington

Bill Gates and Andy Grove will double-team legislators in the nation's capital on Wednesday to promote the growing software industry.

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A survey commissioned by the computer trade association Business Software Alliance reports that the computer software business has grown into the nation's third-largest manufacturing industry - and one that pays wages twice the amount of the national average.

This information will be presented on Wednesday in the capital by a gaggle of industry executives, including Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Intel CEO Andy Grove. The group will be in Washington promoting what they see as the increased importance of the software industry. This comes at a time when congress is considering numerous pieces of legislation that affect the computer software industry, including export curbs on data-scrambling software and new laws to protect intellectual property, The New York Times reported today.

The study, conducted by Nathan Associates, found that the US software industry generated revenues of US$102.8 billion last year, and that since 1990 the industry has grown at a rate of 12.5 percent annually (nearly 2.5 times faster than the economy as a whole).

Last year, the over 600,000 Americans employed in the software industry made an average of $57,300, more than twice the national average. The study went on to say that the software industry directly and indirectly employed 2,065,000 million people last year and that number will grow to 3,435,000 million by 2005.

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