After a number of years of financial uncertainty and layoffs, salaries paid to US tech expertise are as soon as once more among the world’s best. And in at the very least one important US jobs class — gross sales and advertising and marketing — there’s now pay fairness between ladies and men.
These are among the many findings of an evaluation our firm carried out of greater than 150,000 anonymized employment contracts in additional than 100 nations for software program engineers, product designers, and gross sales and advertising and marketing professionals. That features three nations — the US, Canada and the UK — which are typically probably the most aggressive with each other for high expertise.
This excellent news concerning the state of American tech expertise, innovation and competitiveness comes at a time when that standing has been a supply of public concern.
A lot of the upper compensation for tech staff is presumably pushed by the extensively acknowledged skills gap, notably in AI. For US software program engineers, for instance, median compensation had dropped under $100,000 throughout the massive waves of tech layoffs in 2022 and 2023. However by the top of the second quarter of 2024, the latest interval in our evaluation, it had rebounded to $122,000 — maybe pushed partly by the hovering demand for AI expertise.
The US compensation stage was second solely to Canada, whose a lot smaller inhabitants has fewer tech staff for employers to compete for.
General, our survey signifies that relating to one of many components that actually matter to international expertise — compensation — US tech staff are in excessive demand. And whether or not it’s firms primarily based within the US or international employers providing distant contracts to People, the worldwide enterprise world is prepared to pay what it prices to draw and retain that expertise.
Right here’s a deeper dive into the info:
Software program Expertise Are in Excessive Demand
For the folks with the abilities for in-demand duties like writing code or creating AI fashions and algorithms, the US jobs market has some idiosyncrasies. One is the a lot greater potential portion of compensation that comes from inventory or fairness grants.
In positions the place fairness is a part of the bundle, the median US compensation for a software-and-data engineer is $151,000 a 12 months — the very best anyplace on this planet — assuming the sometimes four-year vesting program pays out. That interprets to a further 35% a 12 months in compensation, past wage. Of the nations we checked out, solely Germany comes shut, with a mixed $135,000 in annual pay and fairness.
Sadly, one other attribute of the US labor marketplace for software program engineers and knowledge scientists is a stark gender hole. Girls signify solely 10.3% of staff on this class, roughly consistent with the UK and Germany. And that disparity interprets right into a compensation hole. The median US compensation for males in software program and knowledge is $155,000, in comparison with $120,000 for ladies. Comparable pay gaps are present in all different nations we surveyed.
Tech Product Improvement and Design
This line of labor additionally has a gender hole, though a barely narrower one. For jobs that may contain software program growth and design, or overseeing such actions, ladies maintain 41% of the positions.
And girls in these roles have median compensation of $128,000. Whereas a bit nearer to the male median of $150,000, it’s nonetheless a large hole. The identical sample is clear in different nations, though sometimes at decrease pay scales.
Tech’s Silver Lining for Gender Parity
Tech gross sales and advertising and marketing is one space the place, within the US at the very least, there’s full pay parity between women and men — median compensation of $100,000.
That’s second to the highest determine within the UK. However there, the gender disparity continues to be sizable: $105,000 for males, in comparison with $92,000 for ladies. Canada exhibits a comparable gender hole, at $84,000 for males however solely $77,000 for ladies.
Why ladies, who maintain 42% of jobs in tech gross sales and advertising and marketing within the US, have been capable of obtain pay parity deserves additional research. One issue could be that gross sales efficiency is straightforward to quantify — the extra an individual sells, the higher one is rewarded.
However why this parity doesn’t translate to different nations — possibly there’s a cultural part? — can be price researching.
The Takeaway on Tech Take-House Pay
Our findings result in a number of steps that employers can take to stay aggressive and retain the most effective expertise:
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Acknowledge the necessity for aggressive compensation.
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If inflation is an element, guarantee your pay scales embody bi-annual changes or common cost-of-living will increase.
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Provide fairness, which particularly in tech, is extensively sought by staff and might guarantee longer-term loyalty.
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Given the all-too-common gender hole in compensation, place your group to draw feminine expertise by closing that hole.
For the worldwide enterprise world, the survey signifies that the US has bounced again as a high aggressive marketplace for tech expertise. And for firms in every single place, the worth proposition is evident: The comparatively excessive value of expert US tech staff is effectively well worth the value.