Europe’s Talent “Power Source”: Breaking Down Ukraine’s IT Salaries & Talent Availability in 2023

IT is Ukraine’s most demand-rich work sector, offering the widest area of professional opportunities and the highest earning potential. And the effect is as expected — local IT talents have been steadily proving value and raising positions in the arena through the years. 

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But today, many companies and entrepreneurs aren’t sure whether they should be concerned with the volatile geopolitical situation and reconsider their choice of Ukraine’s specialists for hire. 

We’ve made this research to set the record straight. 

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Any business is a mechanism relying on the quality, sturdiness, and productiveness of each underlying part. The info below proves that Ukraine’s technological brainpower is still to be reckoned with, even outperforming certain indicators of the previous years in conditions of challenge.

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Competition breeds quality

Ukraine’s IT salaries are shaped by unique circumstances and testing times for specialists in the niche. The global IT labor market allows locals to earn four or even eight times the average salary for the whole country. We don’t have to go far to calculate and compare:

• Non-technical IT specialists — $2,323 salary median
• Software engineers — $4,217 salary median
• Non-IT specialists — $500 salary median

The huge difference in the range of opportunities and earning potential is what makes worldwide IT the center focus of every ambitious IT specialist in the country. But let’s go deeper and look at the numbers.

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Ukraine IT Sphere Key Talent Stats

Ukrainian IT industry has about 307k professionals. The majority, 242k, are in the country despite the war. The number of women in IT has gradually increased from 21.9% in 2021 to 33% in 2023, which is a consequence of the steady trend of assimilating IT work opportunities by every other resident.

More than half of IT specialists (59.8%) have a technical specialty, most of them computer-related. As to the level of education, almost half of them have a Master's Degree (47.3%), then a Specialist (24.2%), and Bachelor's (16%).

Because of high salaries, perks, and benefits, the inflow of personnel into IT exceeds the outflow. 42.6% have worked in this sphere for over six years, and 7.8% of seasoned pros (affectionately called "dinosaurs") have been in IT for over 15 years. The majority, >83%, are mid-level devs and above:

• Middles — 35.7%
• Seniors — 35%
• Leads — 14.6%

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Talent positions

It’s no wonder why techies predominate among all other types of local IT talent: 

• 46.4% are Software Development Specialists 
• 13.4% do Quality Assurance
• 11.8% handle Project Management

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The popularity of programming languages can serve as a fairly objective indicator of technology trends in the industry. The top used are:

• JavaScript — 22.05%
• TypeScript — 14.1%
• Java — 13.65%
• C# — 12.9%
• PHP — 10.2% (the old elephant holds its ground)

Imagine a “portrait of a regular Ukrainian IT specialist”: hungry for work and savvy, young yet mature. But the point you might be missing is that many of them already have children and must earn income that allows supporting families, paying taxes, donating to the military, and granting bread for other professionals — nannies, hairdressers, pet vets, dentists, you name it. 

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As such, Ukraine’s IT pros have shouldered much of its economic burden in difficult times without getting up from their computer desks. Some had to leave their zone of comfort and went to defend their homeland with weapons in hand — two-thirds of all companies surveyed reported employees joining the ranks of Ukraine's defenders; the total number is about 5%. The rest are spinning the millstones of the economy.

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Salaries in Ukrainian IT

What undeniable advantage do Ukrainian developers have over other countries, assuming we have equalized them in terms of education and experience? Surely, median salary. The top three annual salary figures for a developer worldwide are:

• USA — $116k
• Switzerland — $117k 
• Singapore — $114k 

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Ukraine? $29k annually, almost four times less, BUT with a competitive level of quality that matches and sometimes even exceeds what’s offered by the US pros.

Bottom Line

Ukraine’s IT labor agenda speaks for itself, offering some unique benefits for international software and IT projects at a comparatively measly cost. What’s the catch? Any legal entity you have to have to hire Ukrainians? No need. Then who will be responsible for all the bureaucratic fuss with taxes, salary payments, holidays, and administrative HR nightmare, which you would like to avoid? Employer of Record — a trusty assistant to take care of all the legal paperwork. 

With the right information, tools, and experts by your side, you can get a fourfold financial advantage by tapping into the vast talent pool of Ukrainian IT cognitive capital. 

You can do a three-click estimate of how much it will cost to hire a developer in Ukraine using the EoR salary calculator for Ukrainian employees.