Tech Salary Guides 2024: Studies of Software Development Market

Due to the rapid changes in the tech hiring market and the high demand for skilled developers and data engineers, numerous companies are forced to steadily increase salaries. Attracting new professionals and retaining old ones has become difficult and expensive. The tech market is changing so fast that even IT salary statistics compiled a year ago are becoming irrelevant.

For this reason, we have collected the latest reports that include current salary statistics and the latest trends in hiring technicians today. This article examines technician salary statistics collected from North American and Western Europe, as well as the tech market in 2024.

How Much Are Software Developers Paid in North America in 2024? 

Developers based in the US and Canada have the highest average salaries in the world. This statistic is not news and applies to all categories of back-end and front-end developers. This results from many parameters like high demand, expensive cost of living, a basic income of a country, etc. Let us dive deeper into the most recent and reliable tech income study for North America.

US Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Robert Half Talent Solutions

Methodology: This complete salary guide was created after an extensive survey. The Robert Half team surveyed more than 500 project managers and 1000 tech employees in North America to help employers find the best candidates and decide what to offer when hiring a software developer.

What can be found in the report: The report includes an automatic salary calculator where employers can add the area of specialization, job category, job title, state, and city. This gives you access to the current salary range and median in your area. In addition, the study includes the top trends for 2024, the cities with the highest salaries such as San Francisco and New York, and a downloadable salary guide that analyses all the latest changes in the tech market.

Report highlights:

• A survey of more than 1000 workers in the US showcases that more than 74% of employees want to work remotely more frequently, and 60% want to work for a company that values its staff during a crisis like the pandemic.
• Most staffing managers are concerned about retaining specialists.
• Most common benefits after the pandemic: health and dental insurance and paid time off.
• The most common perks in 2024 are flexible work schedules and remote work.
• The highest starting salaries are in San Francisco, CA (+41%), New York, NY (+40,5%), San Jose, CA (+40%).

The study includes a detailed list that can help hiring managers adjust the salaries according to the candidate’s expertise and the US city where the company is located.

Canadian Developer Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Robert Half Talent Solutions

Methodology: As with the US report, this income guide was created upon a recent extended survey of human resources managers and workers in Canada.

What can be found in the report: The report includes the tech hiring trends, salaries, benefits, and perks in Canada and helps hiring managers adjust the developers’ salaries accordingly. Likewise, the research identified how the hiring activity for developers (among other industries like healthcare, retail, and financial services) also continues to rise in Canada.

Most valued benefits and perks for 2024.

Report highlights: 

• The difference in salaries between the cities in Canada is almost absent in comparison to the US: the highest raise is in Calgary (+3.2% to the national average) and the lowest is in Quebec City and Regina (-4%).

Canadian cities salary variations in 2024

• Most wanted benefits in the order of percentage of companies offering them: extended health insurance, paid time off, dental insurance, retirement savings plan.
• Most wanted perks in the order of percentage of companies offering them: flexible work schedule, remote work options (preferably 3 days a week).

Top demanded tech roles and skills in Canada 2024

What is the salary of developers in Western Europe in 2024?

As with the US and Canada, the Western European tech market is rapidly changing. We identified the most recent 2024 salary guides for the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Portugal.

UK Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Robert Half Talent Solutions

Methodology: This 2024 Salary Guide for the UK was specially created by surveying tech professionals, CEOs, and CFOs to identify the changes in the tech industry. The survey resulted in valuable information about the tech career changes post COVID-19.

What can be found in the report: The guide includes all the results extracted by the surveys, such as the tech market’s hiring trends in 2024, salary tables and the income variations for many industries (including development job offers), and all the major changes in each of those industries.

Report highlights: Among other things, the report indicates that 66% of UK workers feel that their career prospects are unaffected by the pandemic in the long term but are afraid of losing their job in the short term.

The study also classifies developers among the roles in demand for 2024.

Industries, skills, and roles that show strong demand in the UK

Although the average developer salaries in the UK aren’t as high as in the US or Canada, this high demand has resulted in a salary increase, especially for experienced job seekers with exceptional technical and soft skills.

• 90% of decision-makers confirmed their plan to grow (or at least maintain) a current number of positions in their business which is the opposite of the beginning of 2023.
• Almost a half of the US employers added new benefits such as workplace flexibility, wellness benefits, and pension after the COVID-19.

Germany Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Honeypot

Methodology: This extensive report is a result of 13,000 salary data points such as salaries specified by companies, interviews, and the key data source of the Honeypot platform. The study got rid of unusual (low or high) salaries, and for this reason, it is extremely consistent and reliable.

What can be found in the report: The study includes all the tools and info a programmer or recruiter needs to identify the changes in the tech market of Germany. By analyzing the impact of the pandemic in the industry and the salary variations between junior and senior development roles, the interviews resulted in numerous statistics, which the Honeypot data scientists translated into detailed graphs and tables.

Report highlights: According to Honeypot, the average salaries in Germany vary by over 30% concerning a candidate’s experience.

As with most countries around the world, the most important factor that determines the salary of a developer is experience.  The guide indicates that Germany has some of the highest average salaries in Europe that vary from €45K to €78K per year.

• Top technologies in demand based on the interview invites JavaScript, ReactJS, NodeJS, Java.
• Salaries in small companies (1-10 people) and big corporations (10,000+ employees) can vary up to 13% for the work of developers with the same level of experience.
• Non-German developers usually get a slightly bigger salary because the company tries to attract the most qualified talent from abroad.
• Munich is considered the main tech city in Germany, but Berlin offers competitive salaries and even better relocation conditions.

Netherlands Software Development Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Honeypot

Methodology: As with the guide for Germany, the 2023 Honeypot salary report for the Netherlands utilized a big number of data points (12,000) including the average salaries, and implemented them through interviews in the key data source of the Honeypot platform.

What can be found in the report: The study includes numerous graphs and tables that can be used by both employers and developers to analyze the changes in the tech market of the Netherlands. The report refers to the impact of the COVID-19 in the country’s tech industry and concludes with valuable information about the future of different skill sets, including programming languages and frameworks.

Report highlights: The research indicates that the average salaries in the Netherlands vary noticeably (more than 30%) between junior and senior web developers. Apart from that, there are not vast differences between the average salaries of a front-end (€55K per year) and a back-end developer (€56K per year). Although the salaries in the Netherlands are lower than those in Germany, the offered salaries are among the highest in Europe.

Another interesting statistic is how the average salary is influenced by the size of the hiring company. According to the chart below, companies with 51-200 and 501-1000 employees offer the highest average salaries in the Netherlands.

• Paradoxically, full-stack developers in the Netherlands earn less than front-end or back-end developers on average.
• The most in-demand technologies are JavaScript (including ReactJS and NodeJS), and Python.
• Engineers that relocated to the Netherlands are considered as better experts and receive more interview invites and higher salary offers.
• The gender difference between salaries of male and female developers is the lowest in the Netherlands compared to the other technologically boosted European countries and makes only 4% for Amsterdam and 6% for the Netherlands.
• Mid-size companies pay the best, but small ones usually suggest the equity which could be 1% of the early-stage startup.

Austria Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Honeypot

Methodology: The 2023 Honeypot salary report includes key statistics for Austria. As with the other two guides, the analysts utilized a vast number of info and interviews to create a complete review on the changes that affect developer salaries in Austria.

What can be found in the report: The report refers to the impact of the pandemic in Austria’s tech industry and provides valuable information about the developer average salaries and how they are affected by parameters like living cost, experience, technical skill demand, and company size.

Report highlights: As with Germany and the Netherlands, developers in Austria have some of the highest average salaries in Europe.

The average developer salary in Austria for 2024 is around €54K per year, and front-end average salaries (€49K) are noticeably lower than back-end (€54K) and full-stack salaries (€54K). As with all countries, a candidate’s years of experience play the biggest role in the average income in Austria.

• An interesting statistic indicates that developers in Vienna have the same income as the average salaries of the country in general.
• The top in-demand technologies in 2024 are JavaScript, Java, and Docker.
• Big companies (over 200 employees) offer the biggest salaries, while small startups have the lowest ones, but also include a package with different benefits, including up to 1% of the company in equity.

Portuguese Developer Salary Report 2024

Prepared by: Landing.Jobs

Methodology: With 4050 responders, Landing.Jobs created one of the most reliable salary reports for Portugal. The survey is focused on Portuguese tech professionals and was created to help companies and employees identify the trends and changes in the tech industry in 2024.

What can be found in the report: The report includes all the results exported by the survey, such as the salary differences between men and women, the changes that occurred on remote work due to the pandemic, and the tech languages that showcase enormous demand (Javascript, Java, and C#). Apart from that, the report highlights the average gross salary in Portugal per year.

Report highlights: One of the most interesting statistics that this research determined is that contractors have higher salaries (average of €48K per year) than permanent tech professionals (€32K per year). This can be explained by the different tax systems for these two categories and also similar reasons to mentioned earlier countries — companies ready to pay more for the expertise.

Although most Portuguese developers work for companies located in Europe, the country that occupies the most is the US. Finally, work experience is the most significant parameter that influences the average income of Portuguese developers.

• The research also shows that 19% of responders are self-taught developers, and around 5% entered the tech industry via code bootcamps.
• Portuguese developers change their projects every 1,5-2,3 years.
• Most tech professionals are fluent in English, or at least have professional working proficiency in it.
• The average duration of the projects that developers take as contractors is 12 months.
• The top frameworks are .Net, jQuery, and React.
• Bachelor’s degree doesn’t give and significant salary boost compared to lower levels of education, but those with masters and doctoral degrees earn the most.
• Lisbon is a tech center of the country and developers that live in this city or nearby are paid 18% more than the country average.
• The most expensive technologies on the market are Go, Perl, Cotlin for languages and Ruby on Rails, Drupal, and Amber.js for frameworks.
• Percs and non-financial job motivators that are considered the most important in 2024 are work-life balance, career opportunities, home office equipment allowance, health benefits, and parental leave.

Software Development Cost When Outsourcing to Offshore Countries

The high salaries in North America and Western Europe are the main reason why many companies choose to work with outsourced developers. For most startups and large companies, outsourcing or staff augmentation are an ideal option to attract development experts to work on their projects.

The unique YouTeam model has united startups and outsourcing companies into a single marketplace that helps find developers quickly. Our platform has about 500 dev shops with over 50,000 top-tier tech specialists.

Thanks to this, our data on the cost of engaging developers from outsourcing companies is the most reliable in the segment. In particular, our prices are relevant for hiring in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

If you want to consult with us on the most recent software development rates or hiring trends, feel free to book a free call with our Team Advisor.