You might be wondering about your salary if you worked as a software developer. Well, there is a certain amount of difference in salary when you talk about various parts of the world. Moreover, it would depend on the programming language, skills, and sometimes gender.
Based on the Software Development Salary Survey conducted by O’Reilly, software developers in the U.S. have higher median salaries compared to the rest of the world. In 2017, software developer salaries have been surveyed covering 7,000 programmers from 110 nations in the planet.
Basically, the U.S. has a median salary of $115,000 with Australia and New Zealand coming next at $90,000. However, Western Europe has shown a median of $60,000, while Eastern Europe comes at $28,000. According to the survey, the wide range of salaries for software developers would depend on the differences in cost of living, respondent experience, demand for tech talent, and taxes, among others.
Meanwhile, female respondents cover only 8% of all the participants in the survey. Thus, the median salaries for women reached an average of $74,000 in which more than 1/3 of them have lesser than 5 years of experience compared to 17% male.
Nevertheless, the popularity of programming languages might not be a good predictor for the salary of software developers. This is because obscure languages are in demand sometimes for some applications. So, if only a few people know these languages, they can make a lot of money for the increased demands.
Systems software developers are among the highly-paid technical specialists nowadays. This is because they have more education than the normal IT workers. Thus, they are able to create or modify the software that would run computers and other tech such as network routers, phones, and switches.
Mac OS X or the Windows 8 operating systems have been made by a team of developers that count to hundreds, as system development jobs are not only limited to operating systems. Part of their job is designing software drivers and firmware to gain access to computer components.
Education
In terms of education, the job for systems software development requires more education compared to most computer positions. Companies hiring systems software designers would normally need a bachelor’s degree in computer science or related to the field of computer engineering. Post-graduate degrees are sometimes required for some applicants, as well as on-the-job training or vocational training experience is also a relevant requirement.
Regional Differences
When it comes to regional variations, salaries of system software developers can vary like most technical positions. California has the highest median salary, which is $20,000 more than other states like Ohio, Michigan, and Florida.
Company Salaries
Salaries of software developers may vary from one company to another within the company. Thus, it is directly proportional to the company size. So, if the company is larger, then you can have a bigger salary. Developers working in Microsoft can reach up to $116,000, while senior developers can reach to a maximum of $136,000. Hewlett Packard pays developers up to $89,000 and senior developers are paid up to $124,000.
