Full-time professional developers in Pakistan earn some of the lowest salaries worldwide, with annual earnings ranging from $2,000 to $12,000. This places them behind peers in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Iran, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023.
The survey highlights significant disparities in developer salaries across different regions. In contrast to Pakistan’s low earnings, developers in the United States, Switzerland, and Luxembourg enjoy much higher compensation, with annual salaries ranging from $70,000 to $200,000. In the U.S., developers earn a median salary of approximately $150,000, with most salaries falling between $115,000 and $200,000, based on responses from 7,970 professionals. Switzerland follows closely with a median salary of just over $120,000, with top salaries reaching $150,000 from a sample of 464 developers.
In Europe, high-income countries continue to offer strong pay for developers. Ireland, for instance, provides a median annual salary of about $95,000, based on a sample of 298 respondents, while the United Kingdom’s median stands at around $80,000, with salaries generally ranging from $60,000 to $118,000, according to data from 689 developers.
Conversely, in Asia, developer salaries are comparatively lower. Pakistani developers earn a median salary of roughly $5,000 annually, with most pay ranging between $2,000 and $12,000, from a sample size of 173 respondents. Similarly, in Bangladesh, annual salaries cluster between $4,000 and $14,000, based on 42 survey responses.
The survey indicates that Asia and Africa generally report lower median salaries, while North America and Western Europe dominate the higher end of the salary spectrum. In Africa, countries like Kenya and Nigeria report median developer salaries of around $8,000 and $10,000, respectively.
In Japan, the survey captures responses from 86 developers, revealing a salary range between $36,000 and $76,000. Meanwhile, in Brazil, developers earn annual salaries ranging from $18,000 to $51,000.
These findings underscore the global disparities in developer compensation, with North America and Western Europe leading in pay, while Asia and Africa lag behind.
