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CEO Ekaterina Osadchuk and the Indigo Tech Recruiters team conducted the second annual review of C-level salaries in IT.
We share the results.
Hiring mistakes and losing key people cost the company dearly — especially in the highly competitive IT market.
Having filled dozens of C-level positions, we understand how important it is to know the level of remuneration for top positions and make the right decisions, both when hiring and retaining such employees.
Actually, this was the reason for another review of salaries. The results of the previous research on this topic can be found here.
A total of 201 top managers answered our questions. 140 of them were male and 61 were female. Basically, women hold the positions of HRD, COO and СМО. We suppose that this fact explains the difference in salary — CEOs and CTOs earn more than HRDs, for example.
The majority (58%) of the survey participants are between 31 and 40 years old. The average salary of a top manager of this age is $5, 419; the top level is $9, 800.
The difference between the average salary of a top manager 21-30 years old and 31-40 years old is almost 46%.
So, if you are dissatisfied with the level of your salary and you are under 31 years old, there is good news — get a few more years of experience and the remuneration will increase significantly.
The largest amount of data was obtained in the areas of Digital, E-commerce, FinTech and Banking. In the last two areas, as in the previous year, the highest median salary is $5, 498$ to $5, 653; the maximum level is $9, 083 to $9, 610.
In other areas, $10, 000 to $14, 500 salaries exist, but these are rare cases.
The older the company, the higher the salary is for top managers.
The table shows that, in startups (from 1 to 3 years), the average level of remuneration is quite high. In general, the range of salaries is wide.
There are two reasons for this:
- In startups, the processes and, in particular, the remuneration system, are not established at the level of an “adult” company, and the decision on remuneration is usually made ad hoc.
- Attracting employees to a startup is not always easy — sometimes you have to poach professional managers by paying them more.
The larger the company, the higher the number of employees is, as is the level of salary for top managers.
Also, companies based in the United States or Canada offer larger remuneration than Ukrainian or European companies.
As for the KPI, for the second year, I am surprised by the fact that 38. 3% of top managers do not receive bonuses.
For most managers, the bonus is either annual (31. 3%) or monthly (24. 9%) and depends on the company’s profit (43. 8%) and/or the company’s total revenue (30. 35%).
The most satisfied top managers are those whose bonus depends on the company’s profit. Managers who receive no bonuses at all are the most unmotivated.
To sum up, the biggest remunerations are in E-commerce and FinTech companies with revenues of $50+ million and 800+ employees that were founded in the US or Canada more than 10 years ago.
Top managers with more than eight subordinates, more than 10 years of IT experience, and more than 10 years as a top manager who have an MBA or Ph. D. have the highest remuneration.
Managers are motivated by professional growth (65. 7%), the level of salary (62. 7%), freedom in decision making and implementation (61. 19%), a culture of trust in the company (49. 2%), a flexible schedule (45. 3%), and competent, effective management of the company (41. 8%) — probably by themselves.
Find more facts and figures in the detailed Salary Survey presentation by Indigo Tech Recruiters.
Salary survey С-level 2019
Our study provides general information on the salaries of top managers.
Later, we plan to release a series of articles with detailed overviews of remuneration for individual positions. For example:
- the level of salary of the CEO or CTO depending on the scope and type of work of the company, the country of foundation, the number of subordinates, as well as education, work experience, and other factors.
- job satisfaction of the CEO or CTO depending on the level of salary, compensation package, schedule, and so on.
We hope that this information will help you make the right life and management decisions.
And yes, we are wondering whether the study will prove to be useful.
Please email us with any feedback: info@indigo.co.ua.
Author: Ekaterina Osadchuk, CEO of Indigo Tech Recruiters
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