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Java, PHP or .NET: Which programming languages will earn you the most?

Pay for some key tech roles is outpacing others; but one big job has surprisingly seen salary decline.
Written by Steve Ranger, Global News Director

Salaries for in-demand programming skills including Java and PHP are rising rapidly. Advertised tech salaries have grown for the third year in a row, up 1.7% in 2018, with pay for specialised tech roles increasing significantly, as demand for .NET, PHP and Java developers continues to expand.

Over that three-year period, Java developers have seen the largest increase in salaries – 41%. Their wages also increased 6% between 2018 and this year – the average Java developer earns £63,700, although that can rise to £70,700 according to the data from recruitment company Reed.

The second best-paid programming role was full-stack developer, which pays £53,500 on average, rising to £60,300. That's up 5.6% on last year and 18.8% up on 2016.

SEE: How to build a successful developer career (free PDF)

PHP developers have seen salaries increase by 20.6% over the three-year period, and enjoyed the the largest increase of any tech role in the past year, up 6.9%. .NET developers have also seen a significant boost in salary during the period, with average pay increasing from £39,900 in 2016 to £47,400 this year – an 18.8% rise.

In most programming language popularity indexes JavaScript, Java, and Python are the most popular languages.    

Data scientist, data analyst, technical architect, DBA and network engineer have also all seen double-digit increases to salary over the three years.

Pay for the more business-focused roles, such as business analyst and project manager, has also risen, but by a smaller amount than for developer roles.

Indeed, one of the few jobs to see pay decline in the last three years, according to the data from Reed, is that of IT director, which it said dropped between 2016 and 2018, only to climb back up slightly this year. Overall, average IT director pay has dropped slightly over the period from £89,200 to £83,600.

These rising salaries are matched by increasing demand for staff with these skills, according to Reed: while the overall number of technology roles advertised increased by 10% since the start of 2018, specialist roles such as data scientist (20%), .NET developer (13%), and BI developer (13%), showed increases considerably higher than average. Demand for full-stack developers – a role that can demand many different developer skills – has also increased rapidly, with a 41% increase in roles advertised since the start of 2018.

The data comes from jobs posted on Reed's website between 2015 and 2017 and the advertised salaries.

Andrew Gardner, director of Reed Technology, said: "There are plenty of roles out there for candidates with mobile experience and front-end development. Alongside that, firms will also need people with cloud-based experience, and storage skills. The impact of legislation such as GDPR is creating a lot of demand, with companies making sure they have the right skills, systems and processes in place – as a result roles in data are also growing."

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