Knowledge base · Salary

What is an IT role worth? A salary you can defend.

For companies without a large HR department, “what do we pay this role?” is harder than it looks. Not theory, but a method: which sources to consult, how to weigh them, and how to reach a number that holds up in front of a candidate — in any market.

A benchmark that is set too low often costs you the candidate before the first conversation — without you noticing why.

Step 1 · Sources

Start from several independent sources.

No single source is the truth on its own. The gain is in combining them: the annual salary guides from recruitment agencies (Michael Page, Robert Walters, Hays), LinkedIn Salary for your own region, tech-specific benchmarks such as Levels.fyi, and open aggregators like Glassdoor or Payscale for a broader picture.

Don't look at the average alone, but at the range — and mind the reference date and the local market. A guide from early last year already lags behind in a tight market, and a figure from one country rarely transfers one-to-one to another.

sources side by side

Translate the average into your situation.

Experience levelThe gap between junior, mid and senior is the biggest mover — faster than any other factor.01

Location & marketCapital regions and tech hubs typically pay more than smaller cities, and pay levels differ sharply between countries; remote work partly flattens that.02

Company size & sectorLarge corporates and scale-ups pay more than small businesses; finance and tech companies pull the market up.03

Scarcity & specialisationCloud, security and data are scarce; a sought-after certification (AWS, Azure, CISSP) visibly lifts the figure above the norm.04

Step 2 · Calibrate locally

Why there is no universal salary table.

You will notice I don't publish a fixed table of amounts here. That is deliberate: pay for the same IT role can differ by a wide margin between countries and even cities, and any number printed on a page dates quickly in a tight market. A table would give false certainty.

So use the method instead: take two or three independent sources for your market, look at the range rather than a single figure, and anchor it against a recent local benchmark before you name anything. That is how you reach a number you can actually defend.

calibrate to your market

Step 3 · Naming it defensibly

A range, not a number set in stone.

Name a realistic range rather than a single figure, and explain where it comes from: “market rate for this level in this region, depending on experience”. That keeps room to move without committing yourself too early.

And lean towards the real side rather than too low. A benchmark below the market reads as a signal to a candidate — and then they drop out before the conversation, precisely the person you wanted to speak to.

a range, not a point

Sources & basis

Full transparency: this guide describes a method rather than a closed salary database. For an actual number, always test against a current source for your specific role and market. The sources below are a good starting point in most markets.

Recruitment agency salary guides: the annual guides from Michael Page, Robert Walters and Hays, published per country.
LinkedIn Salary for role- and region-specific figures.
Levels.fyi for tech compensation benchmarks, and open aggregators such as Glassdoor or Payscale for a broader picture.
National statistics offices for the wider pay level per sector, where available for your country.

Want to talk through a specific profile?

I recruit for IT and infrastructure roles every day and know what the market is doing right now. —

Send a message →

← All topics in the knowledge base