What Do Russian and Ukrainian Developers Earn? 2023 Salary Insights

When discussing Russia, we often focus on its vast territory, longest railway, and heavy industry, yet few talk about its IT sector.

Compared with Western developed nations, Russia's information technology level has lagged slightly and relied heavily on foreign technology and products.

However, over the past decade Russia has pursued "IT self‑reliance," emphasizing domestic alternatives for core technologies such as chips, desktop/mobile operating systems, cloud computing, CPUs, and 5G.

In this trend, Russia's push for autonomous IT has intensified, especially in chip development: military chips are largely domestically produced, while 90% of civilian chips are imported, and Russia accounts for only 0.1% of global chip purchases.

Russian programmers average annual salary 180 000 CNY, women earn more

According to the Average Salary Survey (ASS), based on 26 surveys, the average annual salary of Russian software developers is $28,536 (≈180 000 CNY), with about 23% earning between $15,000 and $19,999.

Male developers earn less on average than female developers: men average $28,200 (≈177 000 CNY) per year, while women average $32,500 (≈205 000 CNY). The sample size for women may be smaller, potentially biasing the result.

By education level, those with a master’s degree earn the most at $34,500 (≈217 000 CNY), followed by bachelor’s degree holders at $25,400 (≈160 000 CNY); surprisingly, PhD holders rank third.

Programming experience also correlates with income: developers with 16–20 years of experience earn the highest average annual salary of $41,900 (≈264 000 CNY).

Age 36–40 also corresponds to the highest salary range.

Ukrainian developers earn 150–370 k CNY annually, many work in PHP

Ukraine’s IT industry has rapidly developed, producing notable brands such as GitLab, WhatsApp, MacPaw, and Grammarly.

According to DAXX, which aggregated data from PayScale, Accelerance, SalaryExpert, and DOU.UA, Ukrainian developers’ average monthly salary ranges from $2,000 to $5,000, i.e., $24,000–$60,000 (≈150–370 k CNY) per year.

The report further categorises salaries by seniority:

Senior developers earn about $4,250 per month (≈$51,000 per year).

Mid‑level developers earn about $3,000 per month (≈$35,000 per year).

Junior developers earn $1,100–$2,200 per month (≈$13,000–$22,000 per year).

Analysis by programming language shows the following average compensations:

JavaScript : average monthly salary $3,600 (≈22 k CNY); seniority‑based differences apply.

Python : average monthly salary $3,800 (≈31 k CNY); senior Python developers can earn up to $6,500 per month (≈41 k CNY).

Java : about 5,000 senior, 2,000 mid‑level, and 2,000 junior developers; senior Java average monthly salary $4,700, mid‑level $2,700, junior $1,500.

PHP : over 9,000 developers; senior annual salary ≈$51,000, mid‑level $26,000–$42,000, junior up to $26,000 (≈164 k CNY).

.NET : developers with >5 years experience earn average $68,000 per year; senior .NET monthly salary $4,700, mid‑level around $3,000, with experienced mid‑level reaching $39,000 annually.