“The 2023 outlook for the tech talent and recruiting market is expected to show continued demand for tech talent, albeit at a slower pace compared to recent years,” wrote the Tech Salary Report 2023 by Nodeflair and Iterative.
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Tech salaries in Singapore rose mostly in 2022 despite a spate of tech layoffs and a slowdown in hiring, according to a new report.
“The 2023 outlook for the tech talent and staffing services market is expected to show continued demand for tech talent, albeit at a slower pace compared to recent years,” said the report by tech salary aggregator Nodeflair and venture capital firm Iterative.
The roles with the highest year-over-year salary increases are blockchain engineers (+15.62%), mobile engineers (+11.73%) and website reliability engineers (+10.63%), according to the Tech Salary Report 2023 results.
Salaries for software engineers in Singapore also hit a record after increasing by an average of 7.6% in 2022.
But not all technical roles saw improved wages.
Systems engineering saw salary declines of 2.01% year-over-year, while cybersecurity technician pay fell 1.67% year-over-year. Quality assurance wages were also down 0.95% from a year ago.
“Wage growth is unlikely to reach double digits, reflecting a more stable and balanced market,” the report said.
Across Asia, software engineers based in Singapore earned the highest – between an average of $3,703 for junior positions to $10,183 for senior positions. Taiwan and Malaysia were the second and third highest paying countries respectively.
The report considered over 169,000 data points collected from companies of all sizes and industries in NodeFlair’s proprietary database.
These data points include salary statements and offer letters sent by users, as well as job postings from job portals in 2022.
Financial stability is key to retaining talent
Most companies pay more — 10% or more — than the median wages, with 40% of companies paying 20% more than the average.
Large tech companies pay 35% to 50% more than the median, the report said, citing companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflixand Google.
The report says that employers are increasingly looking for talent who can perform different roles.
“Instead of focusing solely on specialists, companies are now looking for individuals who can wear multiple hats, such as a full-stack developer who can handle both front-end and back-end development,” the report said.
There is also a demand for artificial intelligence experts with the exploding popularity of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and the technology becoming more widely adopted across industries.
Stability in companies is expected to be a key factor in retaining technical talent.
“Companies with strong cash flow, profitability and sustainable business models with good unit economics will have an advantage in attracting and retaining technical talent,” the report said. “On the other hand, less stable companies may face challenges in retaining technical talent.”
“Technical talent will place more value on cash compensation over equity. This is because cash is more liquid and market sentiment for company valuation is expected to fluctuate more.”
Pay gap between peers
Tech talent in the top 10% of the cohort can expect to earn as high as three times more than those in the bottom 10%, the report said.
For example, a software engineering manager in the bottom 10% earned S$7,000 ($5,200) per month, compared to those in the top 10% who earned SG$20,802.
Similarly, in India, the pay gap between the top 10% and the bottom 10% of software engineers can be as high as 3.8 times.
India’s software engineers working in top tech companies earn up to five times more than the median and 10 times more than those in the bottom 10%, data from the report showed.