Dive Brief:
- Tech worker salaries increased by 2.3% last year, according to a Dice salary report released Tuesday. While that increase kept average salaries well above six figures, it marked a slowdown from 2021’s 6.9% growth rate.
- Despite high-profile tech sector layoffs and salary decreases in retail, marketing and other areas hit hardest by the economic downturn, high demand in consulting, biotech and banking pushed average annual earnings to $111,348, according to the tech career marketplace’s survey of more than 7,000 technologists.
- As salary growth decreased, workforce sentiment took a hit. Nearly half of respondents said they were underpaid compared to others in similar roles, and 30% expressed dissatisfaction with their salaries, a slight uptick from 28% in 2021.
Dive Insight:
Tech sector downsizing and hawkish budgeting by recession-wary business leaders may have added to the pool of available tech talent. But the unemployment rate for technologists remained at a near all-time low, inching salaries up as companies competed for in-demand software, cloud and cyber skills.
Any relief provided by the lull in salary growth was eclipsed by workforce restlessness and the specter of a rapid return to the burn-and-churn dynamic of the Great Resignation.
More than half of respondents said they are likely to change employers in the next year, a number that tracked closely with salary woes.
Elevated inflation keeps eating away at compensation, and return-to-office orders, like Amazon’s Friday announcement, can stir up workforce discontent.
A growing benefits gap has also opened around remote work, the report found. More than three-quarters of respondents desired remote options, as compared to the 70% who received it. Over half wanted work-from-home stipends, a benefit only one in five received.
In addition, salary moderation was not spread equally.
CIOs and other IT leaders, including CTOs and tech company CEOs, earned an average of nearly $165,000, a more than 8% year-over-year bump. Systems and solutions architects, software and cybersecurity engineers, cloud architects, and others with highly specialized skills ranked among the highest paid tech professions.
In contrast, data analyst, systems administrator and UX/UI designer salaries lost ground, indicating a higher prioritization of strategic roles in enterprise software, security and cloud deployment.
When organizations looked to cut jobs, a “last-in, first-out” dynamic prevailed, according to research by Revelio Labs. Workers with shorter tenures were more likely to experience layoffs than their counterparts.
