Puppet’s latest DevOps Salary Report reveals that tech salaries rose worldwide despite the pandemic and global business slowdowns.

Salary data from respondents to the 2020 State of DevOps Report supports claims that businesses have accelerated their digital transformation initiatives by 3-4 years as a direct response to the pandemic. The unprecedented events of 2020 proved to many management teams that in order to survive, they needed to push their technology to the next level.

Hiring and retaining skilled, adaptable people is a critical component of digital transformation success — and higher salaries attract these desirable employees.

This year, we also looked at how salaries vary according to a company’s level of DevOps practice or evolution. It’s no surprise that survey respondents working at companies with well-developed DevOps practices also report higher salaries. To attract the aforementioned highly skilled, adaptable people who can execute on digital innovation, many companies actively publicize their DevOps values and cultures.

Key findings from this year’s DevOps Salary Report include:

• Companies at a high level of DevOps evolution compensate their employees at the highest level, with managers making more than practitioners.
• Salaries rose worldwide in 2020, most steeply for upper-income respondents in Japan and the United Kingdom.
• Employees working in life sciences, pharmaceuticals and healthcare were the top earners worldwide, while in most years, financial services and technology lead the pack.
• Technology workers in the United States make more money than anywhere else in the world.
• More women than men earn mid-range salaries, but more men than women earn top salaries.
• Companies with the highest revenue generally pay the most.
• The best-paid job title amongst practitioners was platform engineer.
• Engineering managers earn more than IT managers or information security managers, by a wide margin.