UK Tech Industry Pushing Up Salaries – But UI Devs Out Of Luck

Despite job losses among vendors and high profile companies, those with IT roles in UK companies saw their salaries increase by as much as 30 percent in the past year, a survey has found.

While other sectors of the country's economy struggle to achieve above-inflation pay rises, IT roles have remained relatively resilient, according to data from 1,400 candidates in the UK.

The data from recruitment agency Aspire, collected between April 2022 and April 2023, shows the highest growth in salary was at the junior to mid-level of software quality assurance engineers, who enjoyed a 30 percent increase year-on-year, moving from £35,000 to £50,000 ($43,400 to $62,000) per year.

More senior roles, such as lead software engineers, were more sluggish in their salary growth. They climbed by around 10 per cent — still more than many in the sector have seen — to go from £100,000 to £110,000 ($124,000 to $136,000).

Chief technology officers with more than 10 years experience can expect to receive more than £150,000 ($186,000), the survey found.

The only role category to see earning fall was mid-level UX and UI designers have seen their maximum earning potential fall by 10 per cent, from £55,000 to £50,000 ($68,000 to $62,000).

In a pre-canned quote, Aspire's Global managing director, Terry Payne, said: "The tech sector has gone through a difficult period over the last 18 months, with widespread redundancies at big-name firms. But steady salary growth across key roles looks like the first green shoots of recovery – a welcome sign for employers and candidates alike."

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"Layoffs across the industry mean there are plenty of highly skilled candidates on the market. Employers with ambitions to grow beyond the struggles of the last year can attract these workers by offering competitive salaries," he said.

Over the last year, Amazon and Google have both made large layoffs. Other tech giants looking to release staff include Twitter, which has fired more than half on its payroll; Salesforce, which gave notice to 10 percent of its workforce; Microsoft, which laid off around 10,000 staff; and Meta, which cut 10,000 jobs in March, having already said goodbye to 11,000 roles in November last year. However, not all of these jobs have been tech roles.

Yet in March, Gartner found 86 percent of CIOs reported more competition for qualified candidates and 73 percent worried about IT talent attrition. ®