2016 Design Salary Survey

Company, Team, Product

SOFTWARE WAS THE MOST WELL-REPRESENTED INDUSTRY in the sample (29%), followed by consulting (15%). Computers/hardware (including wearables) stood out for its high salaries, with a median of $130K. This correlation is conflated with geography—half of the computers/ hardware respondents came from California—although even the non-California respondents from the hardware industry reported above-average salaries ($115K). This was even higher than the banking industry (median $108K).

While only 29% of respondents worked at companies from the “software industry,” the vast majority worked at companies that nevertheless produced software: 86% of respondents worked on web products, and a slightly smaller majority (69%) worked on mobile products (almost all of the latter also worked on web products). Fewer respondents worked on wearables (15%) or other connected devices (24%), but these respondents reported higher salaries ($110K and $105K, respectively) than those who worked on neither ($86K). More generally, respondents who did not work on products at all (services only) earned less: this was 13% of the sample, and they earned a median of $70K.

A quarter of respondents came from large companies (at least 2,500 employees) and had larger salaries: $114K versus $83K among respondents from smaller companies. Company age was varied in the sample—21% from companies no older than 5 years, 38% from companies older than 20—but this variable did not appear to have any significant ...