Compensation Increases in 2023

What salary increases are software engineers getting across the tech industry, and are there any notable trends? 100 data points, analyzed.

January is that time of year when most companies finalize their annual compensation increases for the next 12 months. Between January and March, they are communicated to staff.

In 2023, how big will be the raises of software engineers and tech workers? I asked professionals with inside knowledge about what they are seeing in budgets. More than a hundred people responded - including many readers of the newsletter. Thank you! The majority of people being CTOs, engineering directors, engineering managers and HR folks. A few respondents are tech leads and software engineers to whom the increases have been communicated. Two CEOs also shared details. 

In this issue, I summarize the findings by region, company funding stage and size. We’ll cover:

1. When do annual increases happen across the industry? An overview, including which companies and countries tend not to do pay raises at the start of the year.

2. The 2023 tech compensation changes report. A summary of how the 100 data points were collected.

3. Increases by region. Breaking out Europe, US and Canada and the rest of the world.

4. Increases by company stage. Interesting trends across early-stage, late-stage, publicly traded and bootstrapped companies. Why is it that bootstrapped companies are the most likely to increase pay in line with inflation?

5. Increases by company size. Is there a connection between the size of a company, and how likely it is to issue above or below-inflation pay raises?

6. Observations on 2023 compensation philosophies. Common approaches for distributing raises among high and low performers.

1. When do annual increases happen across the industry?