Tech Salaries vs Social Impact

Welcome to day 20 of our Christmas countdown series. Before you dash out to do some panicked last-minute Christmas shopping, why not spend a minute to ponder an interesting problem in the tech world: the huge contrast between high tech salaries and software engineers' actual social impact.

Okay, probably not a lot of people ponder this casually very often, but hear us out.

In the tech industry, salaries, especially for software engineers, can be astronomical.

This is especially true in sectors like finance, where the demand for tech expertise is high, and companies can afford to pay six-figure salaries for talent.

But the question we need to ask is: are these high salaries reflective of the societal value these roles provide? A programmer earning a six-figure salary in a gambling company may contribute to its profitability, but does this work translate to a broader social benefit?

So how is this a problem?

The trend to pay software engineers (and people working in the tech industry in general) astronomical amounts created a harsh salary gap.

This has tough implications for charities, non-profits and the public sector. These organisations, often working on critical social issues, find themselves unable to compete with these big players and offer a realistic compensation package to IT talent.

The result? A significant portion of tech talent is drawn to industries with higher financial rewards, and this leaves socially impactful organisations woefully underserved.

Ultimately, the problem is that the current salary trends in the tech industry create less incentive for software engineers to engage in work that directly impacts social problems. This mismatch is not just detrimental to the charities and non-profits but is a real loss for society as a whole.

There are only 5 more days to go before Christmas, and each day, we'll continue digging deeper and deeper to explore the different issues around Tech for Good. Make sure to follow us to stay in the loop. Tomorrow, we continue examining how the charity sector is impacted by what's referred to as the 'digital skills gap'.