Salary is often a sticking point for the tech ace, with many left asking if a move abroad is worth some extra pocket money.
While Britain is a global hub of start-up innovation, world-class research and unparalleled fintech, a tech role in certain US cities could line the pockets a lot more than it does Europe. Stacks more, according to a study from Hired. In the past 12 months, tech salaries grew 5% in San Francisco and New York. In the UK, equivalent employees banked just 1.24% more – lower than the 2.8% rate of inflation – so actually saw pay packets shrink in 2017.
Tech workers in London actually earn 42% less than counterparts in San Francisco (adjusting for cost of living), who earn $142k (£102,500) on average. By contrast, a computer-savvy jobseeker can expect £58,000 a year in the UK. This is higher than in France, $56k (£40,400) though Brit earnings have dipped a worrying 17% since 2015, researchers found.
To add insult to injury, the findings back up a separate study which found UK IT staff had the worst work/life balance compared with equivalent workers in Australia and the US.
Brexit has slightly staunched the flow of foreign workers into Britain, with the nation seeing a 7% decline in overseas hires last year. To compensate, companies are offering inflated salaries to foreign hires, to the tune of £12,000 more than local UK candidates.
Average salaries for IT staff in the US, UK, France. Source: Hired.com
The report also looked at the average salary for a tech worker in various industries, and, surprisingly, discovered financial services earned the least: $111k (£80,100) annually. Transportation paid the highest average salary: $145k (£104,700), followed by education: $135k (£97,400), communications: $133k (£96,000), then retail $126k (£90,900).
Product managers are the best paid in tech, at $145k (£104,700) p/a though tech salaries in data analytics, product management, design and software engineering have all steadily increased since 2015.
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Hired.com produced their 2018 report based on proprietary data from 69,000 job seekers on their San Francisco-based web platform, in addition to survey responses from 700 tech workers on Hired.com.
