2016-2017 Web Salary Survey

Limitations

OF COURSE, OUR METHODS ARE INEXACT, and you should be aware of several ways in which this report may fail to reflect reality:

• The sample size may sometimes be inadequate. Although 2,000 is a large number of people and worth drawing conclusions from, the conclusions become less reliable as we break down the respondents into groups that use a particular tool.

• We had to group people who differ in known ways. For instance, we sometimes lumped together people in different countries to get a sample large enough to be meaningful, and obviously, salaries will vary in different places.

• The respondents are self-chosen, not a random sample. They are likely to be people who use O’Reilly Media products and resources, and might not reflect the field as a whole.

• Because we depend on what respondents say about themselves, we have to trust them to be accurate and objective. Some questions are deliberately subjective—for instance, we ask respondents to rate their own ability to negotiate for a higher salary.

• The data behind this report was collected in March and April of 2016. Technical fields change quickly, and it has been more than six months since the respondents filled out their surveys.

• Respondents in the web area vary a great deal in both responsibilities and skills. There is also a great deal of churn in the field, and part-timers.

With these caveats in mind, let’s see what our data tells us.