The tech industry is currently among the most successful sectors in the world for good reason. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic started millions of people around the world were taking online and offline classes to learn how to become software engineers. This is because tech jobs are in high demand and they are lucrative.
The average tech worker in the United States earns $146,000 yearly. This is about $16,000 higher than the global average of $130,000. It shows that tech experts earn a lot of money globally but the highest-paid tech gurus are those in Silicon Valley who earn more than $155,000 monthly on average. Has the Covid-19 pandemic affected tech salaries?
Covid-19 Led to an Increase in the Demand for Tech Workers
This year, the Covid-19 pandemic cost millions of people their jobs. However, the global tech industry has experienced a surge in the demand for work. Tech workers like software engineers, web designers, web developers, and coders have been working overtime to meet the needs of the public. This is because many businesses that didn’t shut down entirely had to migrate to remote work and they needed tech tools to facilitate this migration. Already existing tech work chat and video conferencing applications had to employ more experts as the use of their products surged.
You would naturally expect tech experts to receive more money due to the surge in the demand for their skills and the increase in opportunities. In some parts of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom, tech professionals were pouched from their companies and seduced with salary offers they could not resist. Many of these experts accepted the request for interviews and got new jobs that paid up to 10 percent more. Some others remained loyal to their companies and refused to leave no matter how attractive the offers were. However, not every tech worker is currently enjoying a possible salary raise. Some of these workers are facing salary cuts in Silicon Valley.
Tech Workers Face Salary Cuts in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is the hottest spot for tech gurus. This is why people from around the world travel to Silicon Valley looking for work. Facebook, Google, Amazon, and all the other major tech companies in the world have their headquarters in California. So, you can understand why it is such a hotspot. Unfortunately, Silicon Valley also happens to be one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. The rent, food, and transportation in Silicon Valley cost far more than in any other place in the United States.
Because of the expensive cost of living in the Valley, most tech experts don’t believe that they are getting the best deal despite their high salaries. Most of the money they earn goes into maintaining their high standard of living. As the Covid-19 pandemic started, these workers were faced with a rare opportunity of working from home. They could work from home and be as productive as they would have been if they went to the office every day. Many of them started considering relocating to more affordable states within the US.
The logic behind staying in more affordable states while working for Silicon Valley companies is valid. These experts will be able to save a significant percentage of their earnings that would have gone into living in Silicon Valley. It seemed like a good plan but the tech companies aren’t in support of this. They’ve been doing everything they can to prevent their best talent from relocating. They know the remote work system isn’t going to last forever, so they want their talent at arm’s reach when working from the office resumes.
Facebook and many other companies have promised to slash the salaries of everyone who decides to relocate to more affordable states. They have decided to adjust worker salaries to the cost of living in their new homes. So, the cheaper the environment is, the lower your salary will become. Facebook is threatening to remove up to 10 percent from relocating workers and this has led to tension between the company and their precious staff.
Conclusion
The Covid-19 pandemic has come with a can of worms that no one expected to see in 2020. Now, a new strain of the virus has been found in the UK while the United States and other places are reporting the second wave of the original Covid-19 virus. Even with a vaccine in place, it is difficult to predict when things will go back to normal in the tech industry or if it will go back to normal at all.
