The Article was originally published on .cult by Melina Zacharia And Ines Almeida. .Cult is a Berlin-based community platform for developers. We write about all things career, make original documentaries and share tons of other untold developer stories from around the world.
In this report, we examine developer salaries and trends in the Netherlands. How does the country compare to other technology hubs in Europe? Will it remain an English-speaking paradise for software developers and data scientists?
2023 was another year of growth when it comes to software developer salaries in the Netherlands. The average salary increased by 2.4%. In 2023, software developers were being offered almost 63,000 per year. A conservative but steady increase when looking at numbers over the past five years.
Average wages for Netherlands-based developers have increased by 12% since 2018.
In both 2023 and 2022, we can see that the developers’ expectations did not match what the companies were offering. However, the difference is less than 1%, which means that software developers in the Netherlands really know their value.
Here is what the average software developer salaries in the Netherlands look like over time:
Salary breakdown in the Netherlands
When we look at wages for specific roles, we find some interesting trends. We examined the roles of backend developer, DevOps engineer, frontend developer, fullstack developer and technical lead.
The central theses:
- Backend and frontend developers seem to earn the highest salaries in the Netherlands, followed by DevOps engineers and fullstack developers
- Tech leads make around $87.5k per year, which is 4.3% more than they charge
- DevOps engineers in the Netherlands earn 8% less than they charge. This could mean that this reel is not very popular on the Dutch market yet
Salary based on years of experience and role
We’ve compared the salaries offered to the expected salaries based on the most in-demand developer roles and years of experience. In the Netherlands, experience plays an important role in salary benchmarking.
We indicate 0 to 2 years of experience as a junior developer and 3 to 6 years of experience as a mid-level developer, while with 7+ years of experience you are considered a senior developer for most companies.
For software developers based in the Netherlands, experience is important. That’s why we’re seeing an increase in expectations between junior and senior backend developers by over 40%.
The central theses:
- The highest paying role and the role with the highest salary growth is the backend developer role. Even for junior roles, there is a gap between backend and frontend/fullstack developers ranging from 12% to 15%
- There is an increase of up to 30% between junior and senior roles. More specifically, salaries increase significantly as you progress from junior developer to mid-level developer
- Expectations are low in the early years of the job, but for mid- to senior-level positions, developers expect more, even more than they are offered
The best-paid jobs in the Netherlands are on par with the most sought-after jobs.
Most interview invitations in the Netherlands by role
The demand for jobs in the technical field looks a little different in the Netherlands than in Germany.
In 2023, the backend developer role is the most sought-after specialty in the Netherlands. To obtain this data, we specified demand based on the number of interview invitations for each role.
With 41% of all interview invitations, the backend comes first. Frontend follows at 36%, while fullstack developers collect 23% of all contact requests.
So it seems like Dutch companies prefer developers specialized in certain technical purposes. While the “jack of all trades” full stack developers are less popular.
The gender pay gap in the Netherlands
The gender pay gap has widened… again.
In 2022, based on average salaries offered in the Netherlands, gender pay was 6%. In 2023, the gender pay gap will be closer to 8.3%.
This disparity in the salaries on offer is due to a discrepancy in salary expectations by gender. Female and/or female identifying developers have lower salary expectations in the Netherlands than their male counterparts.
The central theses:
- When it comes to salary expectations, there is a difference of 8.6%.
- Salary development is also influenced by gender-specific double standards. In 2023, the average salary offered is €62,400 for men and €57,400 for women. In 2022, the salary offered for men was €60,600, a 3% increase, while for women it was €56,300, a 2% increase.
Salary by gender and role
The negative trend continues when we break down salary offers by gender and role.
In this chart, green indicates that the salary offered is higher than expected, while red indicates that the salary offered was lower than the developers’ expectations.
Men receive and expect higher salaries in all positions in the Netherlands. For frontend developers in particular, the gender pay gap is up to 13%.
Salary by language and location
Language and location do not play a major role in the salaries offered based on the talent’s location.
The central theses:
- Software developers from the EU have better chances of higher salaries
- Developers who live locally and speak Dutch have no advantage in salary offers. They also have the lowest salary expectations. Developers who speak Dutch are people who were born in the Netherlands or have lived there for many years and probably do not know what the salary standards are in other countries
Dutch companies offer the highest paychecks to people within the EU but outside the Netherlands. The higher supply could be explained by the fact that developers outside the country need an additional financial incentive to relocate, or that many come from countries where developer salaries are even higher.
Developer demand is affected by location
Netherlands-based developers receive 45% of all interview invitations from Dutch companies. While developers outside the EU get 34%. This means that the demand for developers is very high. Accordingly, Dutch companies have expanded their possibilities to invite people for interviews, even if they live outside the EU.
Medium-sized companies (50-249 employees) offer the best salaries for software developers in the Netherlands.
At the same time, companies with more than 250 employees offer lower average salaries. This is due to the fact that larger, well-known companies rely on their brand’s authority and popularity. They know developers want to work with them – even if they get higher bids from smaller companies.
The most demanded technologies
We’re also excited to introduce you to the most in-demand tech stacks in the Netherlands.
By contacting developers specializing in different tech stacks, we were able to find out which technologies are most in demand in the Netherlands. According to our insights, Dutch companies are looking for software developers who are familiar with Javascript, React, Typescript, Docker and Nodejs.
Methodology and Conclusions
As the main data source, we used the salaries reported by the hiring companies during the interview on the Honeypot platform.
Our 2023 data is averaged over 2022 + 2023 (28.5k data points) to ensure more accurate answers. Expected salary data is obtained from developer profiles on the Honeypot platform, while offered salary data is based on a company’s initial offer during the interview process. It does not reflect the final negotiated and contracted amount. Unusually low or high salaries are removed to avoid extreme outliers, as well as interview invitations that do not include important information such as position, title, or company location. We use an external library to determine gender based on the person’s first name.
We hope this gave you a better idea of what software developer salaries are in the Netherlands. Don’t miss our other reports – we examine developer salaries in different parts of Europe including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain. You can also download the full 2023 Developer Salary Report Here.