I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I’ll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
Cos I don’t care too much for money, and money can’t buy me love’ (Beatles song)
We all know money can’t buy you love, but it sure can buy you a whole lot of other things. Not all South African salaries are on the up, but the good news is that tech salaries certainly are. We look at which tech skills are in demand, and how you can enjoy a slice of this lucrative pie.
Not all doom and gloom: tech salaries in South Africa
The average South African can expect a year-on-year salary increase of 7% from 2018, according to online job aggregator Adzuna, which recently published their 2019 salary report. The stats are based on analysing more than 100 000 online job listings. Although the increases are inline with some predicted inflation rates in South Africa, they are still way below expected price hikes in other areas, such as electricity, predicted to be 14% higher this year than last year, petrol, medical aid membership (for example, some Discovery schemes will cost 9% more), and school fees, states Business Insider.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Here’s a graphic depicting wage increases in the various sectors. Of the 10 sectors analysed (not all are listed below), IT came out top with wage increases predicted to be above 10%.
Image Source: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/305576/these-are-the-best-earning-professions-in-south-africa/
Jesse Green, South Africa’s Adzuna manager, says: “As AI rises in business and society, the demand for employees with tech skills and knowledge continues to skyrocket, and the salaries for these jobs reflect the same principle”.
Web developers earning 15% more in 2019
If you’re wondering which tech salaries in South Africa are the highest, you may want to consider web development. These specific skills, states the Adzuna study, earned developers 15% more than they were getting in 2019. Here’s a table showing the highest-earning professions in South Africa. You can see how many of them require tech skills, including ‘php developer’, ‘web developer’, ‘designer’, ‘developer’, ‘net developer’, ‘software developer’, ‘analyst’, ‘technologist’ and ‘java developer’.
Image Source: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/305576/these-are-the-best-earning-professions-in-south-africa/
Highest-paid programming languages
It’s worth finding out which programming languages offer the highest salaries. OfferZen, a South African recruitment company, has conducted some research in this area. You can see that, on the whole, those who know Python and Ruby earn the higher salaries.
Image Source: https://www.offerzen.com/blog/developer-salaries-for-different-programming-languages
It seems that Ruby and Python developers earn between 15% to 45% more than other developers assuming they all have the same level of experience. Python and Ruby tend to be less commonly-taught languages than some of the others, states OfferZen, and scarcity obviously creates higher demand.
In conclusion, tech salaries in South Africa are enjoying significantly higher increases than other salaries in different industries. If you’re keen to change careers or upskill, consider enrolling on a HyperionDev online bootcamp in Full Stack Web Development, Data Science or Software Engineering. You can also trial one of these courses for free. If online learning is not your thing, you could enrol in an immersive, face-to-face Web Developer or Software Engineering course in Cape Town or Johannesburg. Python is included in the Software Engineering and the Data Science bootcamp.
