Which programming languages and technologies will pay you the most? That’s a tricky question to answer, because tech professionals generally rely on a variety as part of their daily workflows; however, various surveys and studies over the years have made it clear that mastering something that’s in-demand can spike your compensation.
The latest edition of Stack Overflow’s annual Developer Salary, which queried more than 65,000 software developers about everything from their education to their programming-tool preferences, attempted to correlate pay and technology/language usage. Here are some of the top-paying; check out the original survey for even more data:
It’s worth comparing this data to what we recently surfaced in the Dice Tech Salary Report, where more specialized skills such as HANA and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) were associated with higher average salaries.
Coming back to Stack Overflow: Erlang’s position at the top of the list hints at many companies’ need for concurrent services, which is where the language finds its use. One core challenge in the tech industry is the occasionally inverse relationship between skill demand and compensation. Highly sought-after skills command premium salaries… but as more people acquire these skills, wages tend to stabilize and even dip. For instance, cloud platforms like AWS and Azure are indispensable for businesses, yet the abundance of cloud-trained professionals has tempered salary expectations in recent years.
Meanwhile, highly specialized technologies like MapReduce or Erlang are crucial for specific sectors and companies are willing to pay top dollar for expertise in these areas. This limited talent pool sustains higher compensation rates (similar dynamics are in play with certifications, whose value often diminishes as more people attain them).
When considering skill development, popular technologies like AWS, Azure, and Python offer broad career opportunities. Although specializing in esoteric and difficult-to-learn technologies and programming languages can translate into sizable salaries from the employers that need someone who’s mastered them, the related job pool may be a tad more limited.
