The Stepstone Group: How lucrative are IT jobs? Salary report reveals what the sought-after professionals earn

Press release

How lucrative are IT jobs? Salary report reveals what the sought-after professionals earn

• Gross median salary of €52,045: sector comparison shows IT professionals earn good money.
• IT architecture specialists are particularly high earners.
• Data-driven salary forecast is a key tool in recruitment.

Düsseldorf, May 15, 2023. For years, trade associations and businesses have complained about the lack of skilled IT professionals in Germany, with vacancies often remaining unfilled for several months. Companies are spending a great deal of time and effort on finding suitable candidates.

The situation is difficult for businesses, but are employees at least benefiting from the lack of skilled IT staff? The Stepstone Group has analyzed more than 500,000 salaries to examine what IT specialists can expect to earn in Germany.

Below are the results from the 2023 salary report for the IT profession:

• A gross median salary of €52,045 puts IT specialists virtually level with engineers and consultants, and considerably above the cross-sector gross median salary of €43,842 a year.

• As in all other sectors, the highest salaries are paid in Germany's southern federal states, the lowest in the eastern federal states. Hessen leads the way with a gross median salary of €56,178, while Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is bottom of the list with €41,797.

• IT suffers from a gender pay gap too, but at 7.88 percent it is significantly lower than the cross-sector average of around 13 percent.

• IT salaries rise considerably with professional experience: career starters can expect a median salary of €38,278, while those with eleven to 25 years' experience can expect €63,256. And more than 25 years' professional experience equates to a gross median salary of €69,229.

• A degree is also beneficial in IT, with graduates earning a median salary of €60,531, compared with €48,220 for those without a degree.

• Personnel responsibility has even more of an impact on earnings, with persons discharging managerial responsibilities in IT earning a gross median salary of €65,192; those without personnel responsibility can expect €49,980.

• The highest-paid positions, with median salaries of over €90,000, are IT management positions in large companies and roles with responsibility for IT architecture and software architecture. They include CIO, Head of IT, enterprise architect and senior IT architect.

• AI specialists are particularly in demand. Their earning potential is high, and could rise even further with growing demand. Machine learning developers and engineers earn a median salary of around €60,000.
   

Is salary transparency the way forward in the war for talent?

 “The figures show that IT salaries in Germany are high compared with other professional groups,” says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann, salary expert at The Stepstone Group. “But there is a huge gap between demand and supply. According to trade association Bitkom, there is a shortfall of more than 130,000 IT professionals – a fact that employees can use to their advantage in salary negotiations. Companies offering above-average salaries are well advised to mention this early on in the recruitment process, as it can provide an advantage in the war for talent both in Germany and internationally. More transparency about salaries will also help to bridge the gender pay gap, which is particularly important in the IT profession.”

The Stepstone Group regularly surveys the users of its recruitment platform about remuneration, sector, training, and other parameters, giving it access to one of the largest salary databases in Germany. This data is used in the annual salary report, and in the data-driven salary forecast used to add estimated salary ranges to advertised jobs.

“Mentioning the salary in a job ad allows job seekers to refine their search. The earlier that job seekers and companies know about each other, the easier it is for them to come together,” says Zimmermann. “The focus at The Stepstone Group is on our matching technology. We use our data to make it easier to bring the two sides together. No more searching for a needle in a haystack. We give companies a competitive advantage in the war for talent at a time when skilled staff are in short supply. This is invaluable in the search for scarce IT professionals, as it can determine whether suitable applicants for a position can be found at all.”

Data-driven recruitment methods are the future

The fact remains that companies cannot escape the structural shortage of skilled IT professionals, which has been ongoing for years. The greater the level of qualification required, the more difficult it is to fill the vacancy. Against this backdrop, data-driven recruitment methods that enable better matching could be a major plus point.

“The trend shows us that digitalization, machine learning, and AI-based applications can make the recruitment process easier, faster, and fairer, even in a difficult environment. We believe they will be essential tools for job seekers and HR personnel in the future,” says Zimmermann. “AI specialists, in particular, will be able to choose where they work, as they are needed in a range of different companies. And that includes The Stepstone Group. We are approaching IT professionals as part of our strategy with the aim of adding artificial intelligence to our data-driven tools.”

You can download the full 2023 Stepstone Salary Report here:
https://www.stepstone.de/e-recruiting/studien/

About The Stepstone Group 
The Stepstone Group is a leading digital recruitment platform that connects companies with the right talent and helps people find the right job. The Stepstone Group connects more than 110 million job applications with over 150,000 employers every year. With its integrated platform, the Stepstone Group automates the recruitment process and offers AI-based solutions that cover the entire recruitment process – from sourcing to engaging and hiring. In 2022, The Stepstone Group generated revenue of around €1 billion. The Stepstone Group operates in more than 30 countries - including Stepstone in Germany, Appcast in the USA and Totaljobs in the UK. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany and employs around 4,000 people worldwide.

About the 2023 Stepstone Salary Report
The 2023 Stepstone Salary Report draws on data from one of Germany’s largest salary information databases with data segmented by city and region, professional group, sector, professional experience, and much more. The collection and evaluation methodology used for this year’s report is different to that of the 2022 report. The salary information is now even more precise. Changes include a new weighting that ensures data is representative in terms of age, gender, university degree, and geographical distribution across the federal states. The information and salaries contained in the 2023 salary report are therefore not directly comparable with those in the 2022 report.

About the database and methodology
The salary report is based on an analysis of 561,761 salary datasets collected between January 2021 and November 2022. Of these, 69 percent relate to men and 31 percent to women. The proportion of employees with staff responsibility is 32 percent. All salary data is stated in euros and refers to the median, unless otherwise specified. All salary figures refer to gross annual salary including bonuses, commission etc. They are based on salary information collected from full-time employees. The information is representative of the working population at national and regional level based on the criteria of age, gender, and educational attainment.

The report is based on the salary data in the Stepstone database. Unlike previous salary reports, the information on the Gehalt.de portal is no longer collected directly, but via the Stepstone salary planner. The data is collected via the Stepstone salary planner on Stepstone.de and scientifically analyzed. All data has been checked by our compensation consultants and weighted.