Average Tech Salary Breaks Six Figures, Some Workers Still Feel Underpaid

The average salary for a tech worker reached US$104,566 in 2021, yet nearly half still feel they’re underpaid. Forced to digitize operations and move to virtual work because of a worldwide pandemic, as well as address increased security concerns raised by those developments, organizations were hungry for tech talent in 2021 and willing to pay for it; Dice, a technology-focused employment website, noted in its annual tech salary report released last week. According to the survey, technologists in IT management — CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, and such — made the highest average salary ($151,983) in 2021, followed by systems architects ($147,901) and cloud architects and engineers ($140, 571). It reported that the tech occupations that saw the fastest-growing salaries included web developers (21.3 percent to $98,912), database administrators (12.4 percent to $111,362), technical support engineers (12.4 percent to $77,169), and data analysts (11.5 percent to $84,779). The all-consuming need to store, clean, and analyze data and enhance cloud applications all drove increased salaries, it noted. “With average tech salaries breaking the six-figure mark for the first time in the 17 years we’ve been conducting this survey, and a revolution in workplace flexibility and wellness well underway, there’s never been a better time to be a technologist,” Art Zeile, CEO of Dice said in a statement. “Our Tech Salary Report shows that organizations are responding to the heightened need for tech talent,” he continued. “However, we’re still seeing a gap between what benefits technologists want and what they receive, presenting an opportunity for employers everywhere to understand this all-important group of professionals better and to build environments where they will thrive.” The report found that 67 percent of tech workers are satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their paychecks — an increase of more than 11 percentage points over 2020. However, while only 10.2 percent of workers are very or somewhat dissatisfied with their salary — a 20-point drop from 2020 — 47.8 percent felt they were being underpaid, a slight increase of around two percent compared to 2020.