Since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, all aspects of our lives have changed. The health and the economy are very affected issues in the world because of the coronavirus. This article will describe how tech salaries have changed since the pandemic began. Besides, we will know which jobs were the best paid and what is the future of tech jobs from now on.
An Explanation for Salary Changes
Most companies changed their work dynamics, and the tech industry is no exception to this rule. After the Covid-19 outbreak started, physical tasks, face-to-face contact, and massive concentration activities are now considered extremely risky for our health.
The WHO (World Health Organization) said: “Covid-19 spreads mainly through respiratory droplets or by contact with contaminated surfaces. Exposure can occur in the workplace, while traveling to work, during a work-related trip to an area with local community transmission, as well as on the way to and from the workplace”.
Governments and private companies decided to avoid more infections, so many companies sent their employees home. As a consequence, most companies had little (or nothing at all) production and profits. This situation made employers make two decisions: lay off their employees or cut their salaries.
The Remote Working Situation
The coronavirus pandemic affected most tech employees. They were no longer allowed to work at the office so they had to leave their workplace in cities like New York or San Francisco to work remotely. This is a pretty tricky situation in Silicon Valley, especially with salaries. How much should a tech professional earn while working from home?
According to the Wall Street Journal, approximately 15 percent of San Francisco Bay workers suffered a pay cut after moving. Most companies decided to pay their workers based on their current location. The reason for this is because the cost of living is different in many cities. Fuel, rent, taxes, transportation, and services are different depending on the city.
Before Covid-19, salaries in the United States and Canada were continually increasing, especially in places like Austin and Toronto, which increased by 10 percent. On average, before the coronavirus, Americans earned between $130,000 to $145,000 a year.
San Francisco and New York are the cities that pay the best in the tech industry, roughly $155,000 a year, however. These were the highest-paying tech jobs: product management, software engineering, coding, data science, and design.
What Will Happen After Covid-19?
Statistics from companies like Hired show that many of these workers hope to return to their workplaces. More than 50 percent of these employees want to receive a 10 percent increase in their salary in the coming months.
The situation with wages in this industry has changed due to remote working. Many workers had no problem adapting to remote work, and studies reveal that a large percentage of these people voluntarily accepted the pay cut.
The most common tech jobs are those related to software development. Developers only had a 10 percent reduction in their salary. Still, their labor demand remained almost intact; even in some cases, they had a salary increase.
But this pandemic had a great revelation: the power of data science. According to TechGig, this sector represents 16 percent of jobs related to technology; many professionals in this field were considered the ‘Best Paid Tech Professionals’. This is good news for all educational institutions that teach data science, such as bootcamps, making their students land a job on companies like Google and Amazon.
Everything that will happen to the workplaces after the virus remains a mystery. On the one hand, some workers believe that they will only be able to go to their companies once a week. Others comment that they will do remote work for the rest of their lives. Some want a vaccine to be able to return to their regular schedules and activities.
Conclusion
We could say that technology, unlike other industries, was one of the least affected during the pandemic in the world. Also, this science has helped different types of businesses to continue working. Remote work has been the solution for millions of companies in this era.
This seems to be a message to future college students whose careers will drive innovation and solutions to most industries. It is essential to mention that, even though this industry offers some of the best wages in the market, the demand for tech workers is still very high, and the supply of employees is still low.
We would like to thank Career Karma for providing this blog feature.