Tech wages are rapidly rising, according to a new breakdown in The Wall Street Journal. That potentially complicates things for managers who need to hire new technologists on a limited budget—but it’s also good news for those technologists with the right combination of skills and experience.
The Journal article suggests companies are boosting compensation “by 20 percent or more” in order to compete for a “limited pool” of tech talent, particularly for in-demand roles such as data scientist and cloud architect. Staffing firm Mondo, for example, has seen salaries for cloud architects rise 25 percent over the past two years, compared to 11 percent during the same period for software engineers.
That pressure is also driving companies to offer six-figure salaries to entry-level technologists, especially in white-hot tech hubs such as Austin and San Francisco. When paired with the rising costs of building out and maintaining tech stacks—hardware and software are always expensive—such salary increases are potentially a big budget nightmare for managers and executives.
Dice’s Tech Salary Report offers a breakdown of how fast salaries increased for key technologist positions between 2020 and 2021. As you can see from the following chart, positions such as database administrator and technical support engineer enjoyed the greatest growth, but many technology positions saw a salary bump of some sort:
For technologists currently on the hunt for a new job, there’s every chance that organizations will offer you a solid salary, provided you demonstrate to recruiters and hiring managers that you have the necessary skills for the position. But if a company is unwilling or unable to meet your desired salary number, the industry-wide pressure to hire means you can potentially negotiate for expanded benefits, such as remote work or a flexible schedule. Money is great, but your overall compensation package can include so much more.
