The world's highest and lowest tech salaries

When you hear ‘tech’, you may think of sunlight ricocheting off glass-fronted office buildings, in which high salaried individuals wearing expensive sneakers scan blueprints for robots. Or you may think of the upheaval and mass lay-offs that have textured the tech industry’s recent years, and the significant numbers of highly qualified talent now seeking work in an oversaturated employment market. Depending on where you are in the world, the tech landscape can differ greatly.

For example, while it is experiencing instability in the United States and Europe - with 23,670 workers made redundant across 85 companies in January 2024, including Microsoft and Google - tech is booming in regions like Latin America.

With so much variation in the global tech space, let’s explore the countries around the world with some of the highest and lowest paid tech sectors.

Highest paid tech salaries in the world

United States

With California’s Silicon Valley widely accepted as the tech headquarters of the world, naturally it is also home to some of the highest paid tech salaries globally. According to CyberNews, in 2022, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the average salary “for those in computer and mathematical occupations” was $69,413 a year. However, salaries in Silicon Valley can reach upwards of $144,000 per year, while surpassing $125,000 in neighbouring tech hubs such as Portland and Seattle.

Fuelling this lucrative tech industry are the country’s 20 plus universities which appear in the top 100 QS Computer Science and Information Technologies subject rankings, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Singapore

Singapore has long been a forerunner in the technology space, with the average salary for IT professionals being $120,00 per year, which could rise to $130,254 depending on your role, according to CyberNews.

17.3 % was added to Singapore’s economic growth by the digital economy, which in 2022 created more than 200,000 tech jobs in the country – home to two universities on the QS Computer Science and Information Technologies subject rankings.

Up until last year, tech jobs - which topped the Indeed Best Jobs list for Singapore - were knocked off the top spot in 2024 by Director of Communications. Despite this, tech positions are still plentiful and highly sought after, with job postings for software engineers seeing the largest percentage growth (122%) over the past three years.

Germany

Due to the low cost of living, the salaries earned by tech workers living in Germany are enviable. With the average IT professional’s salary standing at €60,820 per annum, and the cost of living averaging at €927.6  per month, tech workers in Germany enjoy excellent remuneration.

Germany is also experiencing a shortage of STEM workers. So, the nation is offering attractive packages and reforming immigration legislation, to attract foreign tech workers to fill these positions.

Lowest paid tech salaries in the world

India

India is a country to which Western tech companies often outsource their labour, with Big Tech giants such as Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle in operation there, alongside almost 27,000 tech start-ups.

This is due in no small part to the much lower local salary expectation. The average salary for a tech worker in India is just ₹639,285.00, or $7,725 USD. However, India’s cost of living is, on average, 69.7% lower than in United States.

Poland

Over 160,000 people are employed in the Polish IT sector, accounting for more than 1.7 percent of the global IT market. Approximately 15,000 IT graduates bolster the Polish workforce annually, and Poland is the biggest fintech market in Central and Eastern Europe, with an estimated value of €856 million. But according to Glassdoor, the average salary for a Tech Lead in Poland is just €24,000 per year.

This is due to the comparatively low cost of living - food is, on average, 41.45% cheaper in Poland than in neighbouring Germany - as well as historical factors such as Poland’s occupation by Soviet Russia, which stunted the economy for decades. Despite this, Poland’s economy is growing and according to the 2023 Emerging Europe Future of IT report, was named one of three most competitive markets for the IT industry in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Philippines

Home to a burgeoning tech sector, the number of employees in the Philippines’ IT industry has reached 1.57 million, and employment in IT has been predicted to reach 2.5 million people in 2028.

Despite this thriving market, wages in the country remain low, with the average IT salary standing at ₱360,000 per year (5,070.24 GBP).

According to Talent.com, entry-level positions begin at around ₱318,762 per year, while more senior positions may earn up to ₱570,000 per year (8,027 GBP).

These low salaries are due to the very low cost of living in the Philippines, but also to several structural factors, outlined by Outreach International, including that fact that higher education and upskilling are privileges which are denied to many Filipino people.

Lack of access to university level education and “social norms that leave women at a disadvantage” also contribute to the low income of many of the nation’s workers.

Are you expanding abroad and seeking to pay competitive salaries, appropriate to the country in which you’re hiring?

Contact our team today to find out how our Salary Benchmarking service can help you to optimise your budget, attract and retain top talent, and save valuable time.