APAC lags in high DevOps salaries; gender salary gap decreasing: Report

Pandemic-driven digital transformation efforts have directly impacted the DevOps landscape. These transformational enterprise shifts have forced companies to offer more competitive compensation and invest in top talent to ensure sustainable success, according to a study.

The 2021 DevOps Salary Report by Puppet found that more workers are moving into higher income levels than at any time in the past three years. In addition, companies with high-evolution DevOps are compensating their employees at the highest level, with more managers and practitioners entering the salary group earning more than $150,000.

Further, Asia Pacific lags behind other regions in terms of wages in the highest salary bands as only four per cent of managers and practitioners combined earned more than $150,000 in 2021, compared to six per cent in Europe/U. K, 12 percent in the United Staes.

However, when it comes to salaries of over $100,000, Asia Pacific is slightly ahead (33 per cent) of Europe/U.K. (24 per cent) which is consistent with findings from 2019 and 2020.

The salary gap between male and female practitioners is closing within higher income brackets, as women make a steady, potentially long-term shift into higher earnings.

More than double the number of women entered the higher income level of over $150,000 than the year before (17 per cent in 2021 compared to 8 per cent in 2020 and 10 per cent in 2019)

Companies at a high level of DevOps evolution continue to compensate their employees at the highest level, with practitioner salaries doubling and manager salaries nearly tripling from 2020 to 2021. The share of those earning more than $150,000 at high-evolution firms more than doubled to 20 per cent in 2021 from 8 per cent in 2020.

Respondents working in financial services earned the highest salaries, followed by those working in healthcare and technology. There have been substantial increases across all sectors, with financial services nearly doubling from 16 per cent in 2020 to 29 per cent in 2021.

Rachel Lew, Senior Director, APAC, Puppet, said, “As APAC markets such as Singapore and Australia continue to become synonymous with innovation and transformation, organisations must digitally transform and modernise faster than ever. The survey findings show that companies must keep pace with the competitive compensation globally in order to attract and nurture DevOps talent and critical skills in great demand.”

Abby Kearns, Chief Technology Officer, Puppet, said, “It is exciting to see more women increasingly enter higher income brackets, especially in DevOps, which has historically been a male-dominated area,” said. “The gradual decrease in a wage gap hopefully points to a long-term shift in pay equity. As a DevOps leader, I am inspired by this progression and I look forward to seeing more equality in wages and gender parity across DevOps overall.”

For the report, Puppet surveyed more than 2,600 technology professionals globally.