The gender pay gap continues to widen in South Africa’s software developer industry, particularly among entry-level software developers.
This is one of the key findings highlighted by SA’s largest developer job marketplace OfferZen, in its 2023 South Africa report on the State of the Software Developer Nation released today.
The fourth annual report is based on a survey of over 4 500 developers based in SA.
It found that despite the huge demand for software developers, the gender pay gap has increased among entry-level developers, to 13.2% in 2023, up from 6.4% in 2022. At senior level, the gap widened from 16.3% to 25.7% over the same period.
Software development belongs to an industry that consists of a wide range of cross-sector companies that develop, maintain and publish software.
OfferZen CEO and co-founder Philip Joubert points out there are multiple factors influencing this growing pay gap.
“This includes the fact that male developers start coding earlier than women developers. Women, regardless of their profession, also continue to shoulder most of the child-rearing responsibilities, often taking time out from their careers.
“Discrimination is real, but only one of several factors in the growing gender pay gap in tech. Globally, the trend is moving in a positive direction, but there’s still much to be done. Local companies should reflect on their compensation and ensure women in tech are being fairly compensated.”
Reducing the gender pay gap inside companies will help retain high-quality tech talent in a competitive hiring market, adds Joubert.
In 2019, OfferZen’s annual report found that over 50% of male developers start coding before the age of 18, compared to only 33% of women. OfferZen data found that developers who start coding earlier in life earn higher starting salaries and, as a result, earn more throughout their careers.
According to the Executive Directors Practices and Remuneration Trends report compiled by PwC, female executive directors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed tech companies featured in the top 100 earn an average of 11% less than their male counterparts.
A survey conducted by global recruitment firm Hired found men in the tech field across the globe earned higher pay than their female counterparts, 59% of the time for the same position. It further points out that female candidates for tech jobs received wages 3% lower than their male counterparts.
The good news for South African software developers is that their salaries have increased, despite the global slowdown in tech, says OfferZen.
Junior developers saw the biggest increase in 2022 at 19.4% compared to 2021. Senior developers have also seen increases of an average of 6.2%, but year-on-year salary growth halved compared to 2022.
While developer salaries continue to increase, higher-than-average inflation is eating into real salary growth. When adjusted for inflation, entry-level developers are the best off with real earning growth at about 11%, while the salaries of developers with more experience grew by less than 2%.
Cape Town retains the top spot for the highest developer salaries in 2022, with Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria catching up at the more senior levels.
Gauteng-based developers with more than 10 years of experience earn 2% less than Cape Town-based developers.
“With more than half of South African developers working at fully-remote companies, we expect the salary difference between cities to decrease even further in the coming years,” says Joubert.
Fully office-based policies are still the exception: less than 8% of developers have to go into the office every day, according to the report.
Share