What programming language will earn you the biggest salary over the long run? According to Quartz, which relied partially on data compiled by employment-analytics firm Burning Glass and a Brookings Institution economist,
Ruby on Rails,
Objective-C, and
Python are all programming skills that will earn you more than $100,000 per year.
Java,
C++,
JavaScript,
C, and
R also topped the list, routinely racking up salaries of $90,000 and above.
Click here to find programming jobs. “The dataset isn’t perfect, it’s missing newer but increasingly popular languages like
Erlang and
Haskell, likely because they don’t turn up all that frequently on job ads and resumes,”
Quartz explained in the accompanying article. “A large number of the ads also don’t list salary.” But salary doesn’t necessarily correlate with popularity. Earlier this year, for example, tech-industry analyst firm
RedMonk produced its latest ranking of the most-used languages, and Java/JavaScript topped the list, followed by
PHP,
Python,
C#, and C++/Ruby. RedMonk predicted that new languages such as
Apple’s Swift and Google’s
Go, while ranked very low at the moment, will also climb into more prominent positions over the next few years. Meanwhile,
Python was the one programming language to appear on Dice’s recent list of the fastest-growing tech skills, which is assembled from mentions in Dice job postings. Python is a staple language in college-level computer-science courses, and has repeatedly topped the lists of popular programming languages as compiled by TIOBE Software and others. (In addition to Python,
other popular languages in college intro courses include Java,
MATLAB, C++, C,
Scheme, and Scratch.) “The best programming language may well be the one that is most likely to help you consistently find a job, not necessarily the one that pays best,” is how Matt Asay described,
in a recent ReadWrite column, the dilemma facing today’s programmers. In other words, pursuing a language because of the six-figure salary, while tempting, might not prove your best option in all circumstances.
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