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Pinoy developer salaries, the lowest in the world?

Abe Olandres February 10, 2012 · 1 min read

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If this infographic data of a survey made on annual salaries and compensations of web designers and web developers, the Philippines ranked as the lowest paid in the world.

If you don’t want to scroll down and read all the gory details, let me summarize them for you.

Annual Salaries:

Graphic Designers: $5,657.71 (Php243,281 or Php18,713/month)
Web Developer: $6,873.83 (Php295,574 or Php22,736/month)
Senior Web Developer: $9,054.33 (Php389,336 or Php29,949/month)
Software Developer: $7,521.83 (Php323,439 or Php24,880/month)
Web Designer: $4,244.28 (Php182,504 or Php14,039/month)
Senior Web Designer: $7,190.59 (Php309,195 or Php23,784/month)
Medical Transcriptionist: $3,112.47 (Php133,836 or Php10,295/month)

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

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158 Comments

hasbonit · 14 years ago

It’s awesome to pay a quick visit this website and reading the views of all mates on the topic of this article, while I am also keen of getting familiarity.

Jose · 14 years ago

Nakakapanghina ang mga suweldo niyo. Ambabata niyo pa lang pero ganyan na ang mga kinikita niyo. Habang ako ay hirap na hirap na kumita man lang ng 7,000 kada buwan. Marami kasing mga kumpanya ng pag nakikita either ang edad ko or the fact that I’m not a CompSci graduate ay ayaw na rin akong i-consider. Kaya wala na akong choice kundi mag-apply ng kahit janitor na lang.

vincent · 14 years ago

I think they didn’t count those employed under multinational companies

NemOry · 14 years ago

I think it’s better if all commenters here who is a developer and is earning will post his/her salary every month. can you guys do this? I can’t cause I’m still studying. But I’m really excited in my first salary in the future. :)

milo1972 · 14 years ago

all of the above are correct and the thing that we are proud as pinoys,we do better job for less. but there are lot of people beyond IT who earn more than that.

besides its a matter of economics, if you want more luxury, you feel bad if you’re earning less compared to them in other countries. but simply put, living in our country earning more than 20k and still single, you are well off compared to the majorities. i thank you!

Syntax3rror · 14 years ago

May be I can say this was right.. :)

JavaDeveloper · 14 years ago

I know some home-grown IT companies that can offer as high as 100k a month for senior developers and even higher for software architects and managers. As for the entry level like fresh gradsthey can give as high as 20k to 30k…

These companies don’t pay peanuts and I guess they don’t hire monkies too…

kapitan · 14 years ago

tomooo…
ako nga five years na eh wala pang bente…
mas mababa siguro talaga kapag inhouse developer ka.
pero teka, sakop ko nga rin pala pati pc troubleshooting and repair, lan networking, telephone, database admin, paging…
ay shocks, isip2, me anak na nga pala ako this year!
naawa tuloy ako sa sarili ko dahil dito sir abe =(

JavaDeveloper · 14 years ago

No offense dude, but I think its your fault… You let yourself on that crap for several years…

Always remember that you are the boss of your career… You are a professional. I suggest you read ‘The Clean Coder’ by Robert C. Martin — a lesson of professionalism for IT pros…

kapitan · 14 years ago

tomooo…
ako nga five years na eh wala pang bente…
mas mababa siguro talaga kapag inhouse developer ka.
pero teka, sakop ko nga rin pala pati pc troubleshooting and repair, lan networking, telephone, paging…
ay shocks, isip2, me anak na nga pala ako this year!
naawa tuloy ako sa sarili ko dahil dito sir abe =(

BrianUlo · 14 years ago

Sir Abe, What is your personal stand on this?

JavaDeveloper · 14 years ago

To nullify the above infographic, may I asked fellow developers and designers to take this simple survey:

What is your current annual salary? (inclusive of all pays, 13th month etc)
Please state your total years in IT industry.

I’ll go first:

Php 1,540,500.00
5 years total IT experience

Systems Analyst · 14 years ago

PHP 1.1M annual salary – 4 yrs experience

Andrei Gonzales · 14 years ago

Stats are obviously skewed towards sweatshops and outsourcing outfits. Everyone from a *decent* company gets paid more than those numbers.

EXSoftware Developer · 14 years ago

My starting salary as a software engineer/developer back in 2004 was Php21,000 my latest salary back in 2009 was Php120,000 I think it depends on the company. Usually local companies give smaller salary than those multinational/or foreign companies.

wites · 14 years ago

I think this is true if you have a filipino employer and your target market is the SMEs.

Yikes… · 14 years ago

Yup. It really could be the average; and, right, specially if the resource is working for a local employer.

vince · 14 years ago

then you can use that to your advantage. you can underbid competiting countries for contracts

mjdalangin · 14 years ago

on my point this is absolutely inaccurate. not only do pinoy freelancers were paid more than others but also those that have their permanent post. they knew how pinoy IT works that is why they invest to us more

roiji · 14 years ago

sa mga umaangal, mataas magpasahod ang employer nyo. swerte nyo.
pero mas marami pa rin ang binabarat compared sa average. lalo na sa mga BPO.

actually i find this low figure a good thing because it may be an advertisement for the foreigners to invest here/hire us instead of their own.
it will create more jobs. which is a good thing.

wag na lang masyadong umangal since that average figure is relatively high compared to other workers.

Hidden Mickey · 14 years ago

Bakit ang daming indignant na mas mababa ang sinusweldo ng mga Pilipino? It can be a good thing!

1. Mas mababa, pero sa ganyang uri ng pera, mabubuhay ka na dito. Especially if you’re single.

2. This is the reason why they outsource to us. Kasi mura. Yang Odesk rates niyo per hour, ganyan din ang rates ng mga babysitter sa US. Hindi ibig sabihin mas magaling ang babysitter kesa sayo. Ibig sabihin, sa ganung bayad, maligaya ka na at maligaya na sila.

Ang sukatan kasi dito e yung quality ng pamumuhay e.

3. HINDI IBIG SABIHIN NG MAS MALAKI ANG SINUSWELDO E MAS MAGALING! Dami ditong madaling ma-offend.Yan nga ang edge ng Pinoy compared to other countries. Kaya nating mabuhay for much less. Now magawa mo lang maka-negotiate ng mataas ng konti sa kinikita mo, may pang-luho ka na. Samantalang yung devs sa ibang bansa, baon parin sa college loans nila!

Carlos · 14 years ago

I’m glad to have found someone on the same wave length.

It’s good that we are among the CHEAPEST tech professionals out there. That’s all the more reason they should reach out to us.

And besides, it’s here also where they can find the CHEAPEST McDonald’s burger.

thejorlanb · 14 years ago

this is insane! This is inaccurate! I worked in a freelance site, and were getting paid more $$$$ compared to indians.

MIca · 14 years ago

I’m hoping the comments are right because our developers are insanely good. I’ve seen local ones and they are fantastic!

francis estanislao · 14 years ago

mas mababa ang rates ng designers and everybody else kung in-house designers ka or working for a private company hindi tulad pag nasa agency ka or design studio. thats the trend i see, ive been in the industry for almost ten year, mababa pag in house designer ka. anyway may mga paraan naman para kumita ng malaki hehhe

Marck · 14 years ago

I think the info could only be true and limited with the data from staff.com — it could be true for freelancers but it doesn’t mean it’s true for all.

MarionCast · 14 years ago

What appalls me is that our country in the map isn’t as red as it’s supposed to be (i.e., 80-100% English speakers). Really?! We’re only at 60-80%?!

Kyle · 14 years ago

Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. The Philippines, despite what WE Filipinos think, are not full of English speakers.

Yes, a good amount of our population speaks English. But what about their competency in English? C’mon, you go around the metro and you’ll only find competent English speakers at more upscale offices, workplaces and universities. The rest of them understand English to some degree (conversational, yes. fluent, no) and can barely compose a coherent dialogue when speaking or writing. And of course, we also have call-center agents as that’s basically the skill they bank on. Note though, that English for call-center agents isn’t colloquial and developed, but manufactured and specific for their job. It’s always a distinct characteristic for them.

I don’t like to play the antagonist here. But I’m just being realistic — a good portion of the population can’t even carry a half-assed conversation in English. In short, na-nonosebleed. Which is why I believe a 40-60% or 60-80% “rating” these guys give is more appropriate.

Al · 14 years ago

True siguro na masmababa kinikita ng developers kaysa sa abroad pero hindi ganyan kababa a senior developer does not earn 24k a month.. im a entry level and im already earning more than 24k.. im 1 year and 6 month in the industry

PinoyDev · 14 years ago

Im not sure where those info were gotten from. But in manila, I know lot of people getting higher than those…and some,even way higher.

That’s the problem w averaging. It simplifies things too much. Your employer can show you that and tell you that they’re paying scale is above average in the phil,but i most of the data came from cebu an your in manila,then the data means little to you.

Plus,if you’re really good,then those phil numbers dont apply to you. IT is the great equalizer. Resources & info are readily available. We must compete worldwide. Not as support,or maintainers,but as producers of quality software.

Tim hawkins · 14 years ago

Agreed, We employ about a 100 people across all the all of these disaplines, and we are paying at least double the sums you are listing in Manila. Even then we are struggling to keep people as competition for good tallent heats up across the board.

‘Em · 14 years ago

No wonder IBM, Accenture and other technology firms are here in the Philippines!

Elbert · 14 years ago

We offer training and employment for web developers and I must say that this is true.

However, it is also true that we have an oversupply of IT graduates with one job posting ours getting 300-500 applicants at a time. Furthermore, most IT graduates do not have the necessary skills required in the Internet age such as PHP and Javascript.

To fix this, training institutions should update their curriculum to the latest Web trends. That’s what we’ve done with ours, and our trainees have been productive in less than a week.

garz · 14 years ago

I’m a graphic designer. And this is soooooooo true…

nls · 14 years ago

kung average ang pag-uusapan malamang close to reality ang figure dahil ang madaming fresh grad sinasamantala ng company na mababa ang starting. i mean, personally hindi ganito kababa ang income ko pero nagstart ako close sa ganyang figure.

JR · 14 years ago

It really depends on the skill level you have and what kind of company you are working for.

If you are working for an “outsourcing” company then you should expect your salary to be below the average in the world market.

But if you’re lucky enough to be working for a top brass company then your salary will be in the level of the global competitive market.

I’m a web/software developer and my monthly salary is already in the six figures with my annual income topping at around 4.6 Million PHP.

That is just my “basic” salary and not counting the monthly allowance and shares that I am getting from the profits of the top Swedish company that I am currently working for.

And to sweeten the deal, I am not paying a single cent in tax locally.

Go figure… ;)

garz · 14 years ago

Your employer’s in Sweden. I think this survey goes to all Filipino desgners/developers and their Filipino employers…

bern · 14 years ago

that is the reason why foreign business do outsourcing here, cheap labor force. by the way if you are senior software engineer working here in PH you can earn a monthly gross salary up to or around 100k, smaller though compares to what they have earned in abroad.

Kirt Romero · 14 years ago

in the long run, this is an advantage

Zen · 14 years ago

still depends on the skills you have, if you’re good at what you do you could demand for a higher pay..

still, if we’re talking about entry level, it would be a different story..

my two cents.. :)

watrboy · 14 years ago

well.. employer lang talaga ang me karapatang yumaman.. tayo eh forever na nilang alipin.. hehehe.. hays

alainL · 14 years ago

What else is new, though?

Acid Bhen · 14 years ago

pretty much true, if your working for a local based BPO company and a fresh grad too

After college, i got a entry level web developer starting 10K per month, i did take for experience, :)

then i tranfer to a International company with starting of 18K per month in training for a level 1 programmer,

….

21 · 14 years ago

What’s new? nu ba bago sa pinas,

jc vincent · 14 years ago

Really? So tell me, bakit kapag ang kumpanya ay nagtitipid eh pinupull out nila ang kanilang projects sa Pilipinas at nililipat sa India? Example is Fujitsu back in 2009.

I’ve with the IT industry for 4 years now and I know the data is not true.

jc vincent · 14 years ago

Really? So tell me, bakit kapag ang kumpanya ay nagtitipid eh pinupull out nila ang kanilang projects sa Pilipinas at nililipat sa India? Example is Fujitsu back in 2009.

I’ve with the IT industry industry for 4 years now and I know the data is not true.

Cybread · 14 years ago

Another thing, the talent of Filipinos is there, technically intelligent but Filipinos luck of guts to negotiate themselves. That only means that Philippines is rich in professional contribution but luck of Entrepreneurial skills.

manaka_junpei · 14 years ago

the only way to resolve this is to bring K-12 to the Philippine Education system, the Old one must go, hindi na kasi maganda ang lumang educational system, dahil sa discrimination nang other countries pagdating sa education, talo tayo, plus more Out of the School Youth, dropouts atbp., para kapag nakatapos nang buo, no problem at all kapag OFW na sila.

Cybread · 14 years ago

Really! I think one of the reasons that resulted to this is that Foreign companies know that the standard of living in the Philippines is very low compare to their home country so these companies are really taking advantage to get cheap service from Filipinos. Filipinos grab it because they don’t have any choice.

Ben · 14 years ago

Almost every job in every field in the Philippines is compensated better on other countries. That’s why everyone that is talented goes to work abroad.

Neil · 14 years ago

Number 1 reason diyan is yung cost ng education (college) sa mga countries na yan. IIRC, ang 1 year of college sa US is about ~$50,000 to ~$70,000. :)

Kyle · 14 years ago

Very true. The cost is staggering. I already study at a relatively expensive university in our country where average tuition alone per year is Php 150,000+ (approx $3400) and the $30,000 tuition at community colleges in the US is already a farcry. What more better universities there? Not to mention universities in first world countries are actually more difficult to get into and are even harder to stay in.

While salaries here are relatively lower, the cost of living is too. Besides, they salaries aren’t really THAT low. I don’t know where Staff.com gets their figures, but most of the people I know get WAY more than that. Yes, what they do fit the description of those jobs mentioned.

Kyle · 14 years ago

I’ll retract that. It’s not “most of the people I know. It’s ALL of the people I know that fit those job descriptions get MORE than those salaries indicated.

I wonder where they get their figures.

*Apologies for the typos and whatnot in the previous message. Just woke up rofl. I really wish they had an edit function for the messages.

webSupot · 14 years ago

Marami kasing pinoy na utu-uto! Kahit mababang sahod tanggap lang ng tanggap. We’re selling ourselves short! People should know what they’re worth before accepting any type of job.

Lezure2010 · 14 years ago

It may be low compared to the rest of the world, but developer salaries here in the Philippines are still pretty high compared to other jobs. Just convert those figures to peso.

We also haven’t factored in the cost of living here compared to other countries. Food probably cost more there or something like that.

reynold · 14 years ago

Parang anlabo naman na mas malaki sa india and malaysia. i think di nag kakalayo with those two countries, but regardless lowest talaga in the world. (Although we still dont consider the lifestyle.)

Jacque Doring · 14 years ago

These are the reason why they want to outsourced here.

Marcial Bonifacio · 14 years ago

Baka may mga kaibigan kayo na nasa ganitong linya ng trabaho. Bigyan niyo kami ng idea kung magkano sinasahod nila. Baka naman kasi per project basis lang sila o kaya nagta-trabaho sa isang malaking company kaya ganyan kababa ang sahod, pero grabe ang baba nyan.