Salaries for beginners increased by $100, while those of some experienced specialists decreased. Which IT specialists began to earn the most

In May-June 2026, the DOU team traditionally conducted a survey among IT professionals about their salaries, in which 4,522 people participated. Here is a brief summary of the key indicators:

• In June 2026, the median salary for developers was $3,500 . This is in line with the level in June 2024, but shows a slight increase — $50 more than was recorded in December 2025;
• Over the past year, incomes have increased for more than half of developers (in particular, 31% in half a year) , and most often the salaries of employees with more than one year of experience were revised, while about a quarter of those surveyed did not receive a raise at all;
• This summer, developer salaries grew rapidly only up to 9 years of experience, where they reached $5,000 (versus $4,200 for 8 years), and then income stabilized at the same level up to 20 years of experience;
• The highest median salaries for developers were recorded in Kyiv, Ternopil and Cherkasy ($3900) and Lviv ($3800) , while the lowest figures were in Mykolaiv ($2100) and Sumy ($2250), which, together with Poltava ($2400), demonstrated the largest drop in income — by $750 and $700, respectively;
• The highest median salaries are recorded in product and outstaffing companies , where Senior specialists receive $4,800 and $4,650, respectively, and Middle and Junior specialists earn the most in outstaffing ($2,700) and product ($1,200), while the income of seniors in startups has noticeably decreased - by $400 (to $4,600).

There is a positive trend in the market for beginners: salaries for interns and juniors increased by $100 and $90, respectively. The median of high-paid System Architects jumped by $500 after the winter slump to $7,000.

In contrast to entry-level positions, salaries in small categories of highly paid specialists have declined. In particular, team leads have lost a median of $140 over the past six months. The sharpest decline was recorded at Principal SE, where their income fell by $408 to $5,925. At the same time, Staff SE specialists, despite a slight decrease of $96, maintain their leadership in development with the highest median salary of $7,130.

In terms of the highest earnings (third quartile) in Ukrainian IT, System Architect leads with $8,375 and Staff/Principal specialists with $8,000, while for other top positions — Technical Lead, Team Lead, and Senior SE — these maximums are lower and range from $7,100 to $5,600.

Developers writing in Ruby, Go, Python, Kotlin, and Rust earn the most, with figures of $5,700–$6,050, while the first three languages ​​recorded an increase in income, and the top earnings of Python specialists jumped the most — from $5,150 to $5,863.

In the summer of 2026, Senior developers earned the most in Back-end ($4,700) and Mobile ($4,625), despite a slight decrease, while Desktop and Platform Development ($2,900) led the way for Middles, Juniors' salaries were in the range of $895–$1,000, and the Embedded segment recorded a noticeable increase of $200.

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