Bostinno
Here's how the pandemic changed salary and career outlook in tech
By: Srividya Kalyanaraman
The coronavirus pandemic definitively, almost singlehandedly, derailed the course of work and life. Enough for experts to speculate the salient features of a “post-covid” world.
In the tech sector, that went from workers in the U.S. looking at an average market salary of $146,000 to nearly a third of them willing to take a pay cut to keep their jobs.
A new Hired report titled “State of Salaries” depicts the stark differences in salary and jobs outlook among tech professionals in a pre and post Covid-19 world.
Most notable are the differences in salary growth from 2015 to 2019 and the subdued optimism resulting from the business disruption caused by the pandemic. Hired’s job portal data from during that period shows growth in salaries across tech hubs in the U.S. As seen in the infographic below, tech salaries in Boston grew 8 percent from 2015 to 2019.
However, those career prospects changed heading into early 2020, with mounting layoffs in the tech sector. A whopping 42 percent of the respondents were afraid of being laid off in six months.
Image courtesy: Hired
The survey was focused on tech talent in 11 markets, with an analysis of over 425,000 interview requests including more than 10,000 participating companies and 98,000 job seekers.
Image courtesy: Hired
Biases and bargains
The tech salary growth in aforementioned 2015 to 2019 period tells a story of inequitable growth. The survey found substantial gaps between white and Black and Hispanic tech professionals. The salaries offered to Black candidates, while higher compared to previous years, were still $10,000 less on average than those offered to white candidates. And this reflected in expectations and outlook as well. Based on data gathered from candidate profiles, the survey found Black and Hispanic candidates list a preferred salary that’s $9,000 and $4,000 less, respectively.
Image courtesy: Hired
Is work-from-home the new normal?
The report would affirm so. The report found respondents wanting “the best of both the worlds” when it came to remote work flexibility.
While half the respondents said they’d want to return to their office “at least once a week” post-Covid, only 7 percent want to go back for a full workweek. A majority of them said they want to be in the office 2-3 times a week.
However, an overwhelming majority of the respondents were unwilling to take a pay cut for fully remote work.
