The median salary of Ukrainian developers fell by $135 to $3,300 in the second half of 2023. This is the first drop in salaries since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The data is reported in the DOU survey, which took place in December 2023 and early January 2024.
The decrease in salaries affected professionals at all levels, except for the most experienced developers at the Tech Lead and Architect levels.
The largest decrease was in the salaries of senior level specialists ($163, down to $4,738). Middle specialists saw their salaries fall by $100 to $2,500. This trend was not lost on entry-level specialists: The average salary in June was $950, compared to $1,000 six months ago. Interns can expect to earn $350 on average, down from $450.
- By company type: Median salaries for contract developers remain among the highest in the market ($4,100, +$100 over six months). Startups now receive significantly less ($3338, -$663 over half a year). Salaries in product companies are still in line with the market average. Over the past six months, middle managers and specialists at the lead levels and above started receiving less (-$200).
- By specialisation: Median salaries decreased for Front-End Specialists at all levels except Lead+. Among Full Stack specialists, this was mainly the case for juniors (-$80) and seniors (-$450). The specialisations with the highest salaries continue to be Back-End (the largest decrease in mid-level salaries -$100) and Mobile (in Lead+ -$300).
- By programming language: The highest median salaries, the same as six months ago, are for developers whose primary programming language is Scala ($5,600, +$100 over the last six months). In the second place was Go, with a median salary of $4,500 (-$500 over half a year).
- By region: The biggest drop in salaries is observed in Kyiv (by $131, to $3,619) and Lviv (by $225, to $3,500). In Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Chernivtsi, median salaries remained at the same level, while Lutsk and Poltava saw a small increase (by $100 and $25 respectively).
- The level of English proficiency among developers is quite high, with 45% classifying as upper intermediate and a further 10% as advanced. Over the course of the year, the proportion of professionals with an Upper Intermediate or higher level of English has increased by three points.
- Professionals with a higher level of English can still expect higher salaries — this pattern is observed across all titles. However, the decline in salaries in the second half of 2023 affected both those with a good knowledge of English and those just learning it.