Software program builders in fintech are outearning their counterparts in different industries.
This is without doubt one of the findings within the 2025 Software program Developer Wage Benchmarking Report from Cape City-based on-line expertise expertise market OfferZen.
OfferZen surveyed 3 400 builders between 25 September and eight November 2024 to assemble its information, and the quantities printed within the report replicate gross month-to-month wage earlier than deductions.
“Consulting, cloud tech and fintech provide a number of the highest common salaries within the nation. These sectors sometimes embody enterprise corporations like banks and huge multinational corporations, which usually pay larger salaries than smaller corporations,” stated the report.
There quite a lot of components contributing to the general earnings potential of builders in South Africa, with seniority – measured in years of expertise – most carefully correlating with larger ranges of revenue.
However different components corresponding to a developer’s metropolis of employment, their framework of specialisation, their programming language(s) used and the {industry} they work in can affect earnings in several methods at completely different phases of their profession.
When checked out on a per-industry foundation, nevertheless, builders working in fintech are outperforming their counterparts in different industries corresponding to telecommunications and e-commerce.
Shielded
In response to the report, builders throughout the board are experiencing slower wage development, fewer job alternatives and elevated competitors for obtainable positions. Firms, alternatively, are going through extra monetary pressure, with rising strain to take care of and even enhance output whereas protecting prices low. This has led to a decline in demand for software program expertise in recent times, stated OfferZen.
However builders within the fintech sector are considerably shielded from these developments as their specialist expertise stay in excessive demand, stated OfferZen.
The wage hole between fintech builders and people in different industries is widest on the most junior degree of expertise, the place candidates have between zero and two years of expertise. At R38 068/month, the common for junior fintech builders is R6 645 larger than second positioned cloud-tech builders, who’re carefully adopted by e-commerce builders who earn a mean of R28 177/month on the junior expertise degree.
The image adjustments dramatically on the two- to four-year expertise degree. On this class, information and analytics corporations rise to the fore as the highest payers, with these builders incomes a mean of R44 002/month. Cloud builders are available in second at R42 437/month, with fintech a detailed third at R41 111/month.
Fintech once more takes the lead because the expertise degree rises to the four- to six-year vary. At 58 579/month, fintech builders at this stage of their careers outearn these within the subsequent highest-paying sector, information and analytics, by R6 079.
Though cloud-tech builders common round R15 000/month lower than their fintech counterparts at this stage of their profession, they have a tendency to catch up as their rise in seniority. At 10 or extra years of expertise, cloud builders are the best incomes, raking in a mean of R101 280/month. They’re carefully adopted by these in consulting corporations at R100 874/month, with fintech builders incomes solely marginally lower than that at R100 597/month.
Learn: The very best-paid software program and IT expertise in South Africa
Total, nevertheless, fintech builders seem like the most effective earners over the lifetime of their careers. The common lifetime earnings within the fintech {industry} quantity to R62 612/month, with the common for cloud builders, who got here in second, simply over R4 000 decrease at R58 601/month.
The marginal variations in earnings between the fintech, cloud and consulting industries on the most senior ranges of expertise could make it seem as if selecting both profession path just isn’t financially vital ultimately. Nonetheless, the huge hole between fintech builders and their counterparts on the very begin of their profession represents a chance to put money into belongings, a few of which can develop to generate vital revenues, in addition to make extra sizeable contributions to their retirement earlier on. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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