Experience, title, specialization, and English: who gets $6K in Ukrainian IT and why

Only 9% of Ukrainian IT professionals have a salary of $6000. Most often, these are developers (68%) or DevOps specialists (9%).

DOU analyzed who exactly receives such a salary and what skills are required for this.

The share of highly paid professionals has not changed during the full-scale invasion

Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 dramatically changed labor market trends. Demand for Ukrainian IT professionals decreased, and salaries stopped growing.

This primarily affected the salaries of entry-level and mid-level specialists who remained in Ukraine.

• the share of IT professionals with salaries under $2000 increased (37% in 2022-23 vs. 34% in 2021);
• the number of those who received between $2000 and $4999 decreased (44% in 2022-23 vs. 47% in 2021).

The share of specialists with the highest salaries remained virtually unchanged:

• At the end of 2021, 18% of specialists received $5000 or more;
• in 2022 — 19%;
• in 2023 — 18%.

Nowadays, a salary of $6000 is already high in the Ukrainian IT market.

• Only 9% of our IT employees have this or higher income.
• 5% of IT workers earn more than $7000.
• Professionals with compensation of $10K or more are rare, both before and now. In 2021-23, only 1% of all IT professionals had such an income.

Non-technical specialists have different salary trends: despite the war, their remuneration is growing.

Over the past two years, the share of non-technical professionals earning up to $1000 has decreased from 32% to 28%, and the share of those earning $1000-1999 has decreased from 38% to 36%. Instead, there are more people with salaries starting at $2000 (36% in 2023 vs. 30% in 2021).

The share of non-technical professionals earning $6000 or more is very low, although it has also increased from 1% to 2% over the past two years.

Experience, title, technical specialization and good English

Technical specialists have a much higher chance of reaching the $6000 income level than non-technical specialists. 98% of IT professionals with a salary of $6000 or more have technical specializations.

• Most often, these are developers (68%) or DevOps specialists (9%).
• Only 2% of IT professionals with high earnings work in non-technical specialties. These are mostly Product Designers, HR Directors, and Chief Marketing Officers.

Extensive work experience is a prerequisite for earning $6000 per month.

62% of professionals with this salary have been working in IT for more than nine years, and another 33% have been working for five to nine years.

In addition to work experience, plays the role of a specialist’s title.

• 89% of those who earn more than $6000 are Senior and above.
• It is much more difficult for Middle-level professionals, even those with more than five years of experience, to earn $6000 or more: only 1% of experienced Middles have this salary compared to 24% of Seniors.

Almost all professionals earning more than $6000 have a good command of English: 82% speak English at the Upper-Intermediate or Advanced level, another 15% at the Intermediate level, and only 2% below that.

The company and technical specialization of a specialist also affect income

Among tech professionals who have been working in IT for more than five years, have a Senior+ title, and have Upper-Intermediate English or higher, only 32% earn $6000 or more. These conditions are usually not enough to have better chances.

Choosing the right company can bring an IT professional closer to such a salary. Startups are ready to pay the best remuneration to experienced Senior+ tech professionals with good English (57% of them receive more than $6000), followed by outstaffing companies and product companies (37%). Outsourcing companies are the most difficult to get such amounts of money: only 21% of Senior+ tech professionals with more than five years of experience and good English receive more than $6000.

The size of the company also matters in this product: small companies with up to 50 employees and large companies with 1000 or more employees are more likely to receive $6000 or more than medium-sized companies. In outsourcing and outstaffing companies of different sizes, there are no noticeable differences in the salaries of experienced professionals.

Changing jobs also has a positive impact on IT workers’ income.

• 44% of Senior+ tech professionals with five years of experience and good English who have worked for five or more companies in their careers earn more than $6000;
• compared to 30% among those who worked in three or four;
• and 16% among those who worked for one or two companies.

For tech professionals with good English and 10 years of experience, even now a job change can mean an increase in income.

Among seniors and leaders with this experience who changed jobs last year, 47% earn more than $6000. This compares to 39% of those who did not change jobs. There is no such trend among professionals with 5-9 years of experience.

The technical skills and specialization of a specialist also affect their income.

High-level managers have the highest chances of earning more than $6000 —: CTOs, Directors of Engineering, Engineering Managers, CEOs, and company founders.

Share of those earning more than $6000 among Senior+ technical specialists with five years of experience and Upper-Intermediate and higher English

• In addition to them, experienced DevOps/SRE, Data Science/Engineering, and developers can expect such salaries. Among developers, Back-end specialists and those who most often use Go and Scala, as well as Ruby, Python, and Swift, have the highest chances of earning more than $6000.
• The chances of such a salary for experienced QA specialists, project managers (except for Engineering Managers), and analysts are quite low — no more than 15%.

The field in which a specialist works matters.

Currently, the best salary prospects are for experienced Senior+ tech professionals working in Blockchain, Machine Learning, and High Load Systems. About 40% of them earn more than $6000.