According to a DOU study, Ukrainian IT professionals living abroad with 3 to 5 years of experience earn an average salary that is 34% higher compared to those who remain in Ukraine. Among all IT specialists, only 36% are registered in the country of their current residence.
This is reported by Finway
Where Ukrainian IT Specialists Live
The majority of Ukrainian IT specialists reside in Europe – 92%, while another 3% live in the USA or Canada. The largest share of Ukrainian IT professionals is concentrated in the following countries:
- Poland – 39%
- Spain – 10%
- Germany – 5%
- Romania – 5%
- Portugal and Bulgaria – 4% each
- Czech Republic and Slovakia – 3% each
Experience and Specializations of Professionals
Professionals who have moved abroad do not differ significantly in specialization from those working in Ukraine. Developers make up 43% of those who have relocated, while testers account for 17%. More experienced specialists, particularly Back-end and Mobile developers, AQA, and project management professionals, have more frequently moved abroad. Among those who emigrated, only 8% are juniors and interns (16% in Ukraine), while among mid-level professionals, 27% are abroad compared to 34% in Ukraine. At the same time, 60% of specialists abroad are at the Senior+ level, whereas in Ukraine, they constitute 45%. The proportion of women in this field is also slightly higher abroad – 31% compared to 28% in Ukraine.
“Net” median salaries of specialists abroad are higher than in Ukraine.
More than half of Ukrainian IT specialists living abroad work through Ukrainian individual entrepreneurs, gig contracts, or are employed by Ukrainian companies. However, 36% of them are registered according to the legislation of their country of residence, while about 5% work without registration. The largest share of registered specialists is observed in the USA, Canada, the UK, Poland, and Germany;
The most lenient regulations are implemented in Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia, where the majority of Ukrainian IT specialists work with registration in Ukraine.
Regarding salaries, the highest median for those who moved to the USA is $7500 per month. Among emigrants to Europe, the median salary is $3500, while the median salary for Ukrainian IT specialists is $2500. For professionals with 3-5 years of experience, the salary difference between Ukraine and foreign countries averages 34%. For more experienced professionals, this gap is smaller – about 11%. Median salaries for specialists with over 5 years of experience in Europe are 8% higher than in Ukraine, with the highest figures in Spain ($5250) and Croatia ($5225), while the lowest are in Bulgaria ($4000) and Germany ($4500).