Announcing the 2025 Data Professional Salary Survey Results.
We’ve been running our annual Data Professional Salary Survey for almost a decade, and I was really curious to see what the results would hold this year. How would inflation and layoffs impact the database world? Download the raw data here and slice & dice it to see what’s important to you. Here’s what I found.
First, without filtering the data at all, worldwide salaries are are down this year for the first time ever, but hold that thought:
If we filter for just United States folks whose primary database is SQL Server or Azure SQL DB, the salaries stayed about even. Still, that’s not a great sign:
I mean, it’s weird to say “not a great sign” when we’re making six-digit salaries – a lot of folks would love to have that kind of problem.
Because this blog’s primary readership is SQL Server folks, I wouldn’t use the survey to draw conclusions about any other platform. The number of responses for other platforms is really low:
The rest of this post has no filters – we’re looking at all countries, all database platforms. What are y’all’s job plans for this year?
Most respondents intend to stay in the same employer, in the same role. This lines up with prior years, too:
For the last several years, about 2/3 of y’all have intended to stick it out.
Folks who are planning to make a change also happen to be getting paid less – and that’s probably not a coincidence, heh. If you’re thinking about changing roles, you’re probably interested in who’s bringing home the cheddar:
Architect is generally a title that involves seniority, too, so time may play into that. Note that manager is high, too – if you manage staff, you tend to get paid more:
This is the second year of the survey where female pay is actually higher than male! The response rate is pretty skewed, but it always has been:
People who live in large cities tend to make more:
And people who work in non-profits and local governments seem to be doing pretty well:
Download the raw data here, and hope this data is useful to you when you have salary and career planning discussions with your manager. Here’s to you getting a raise this year!
8 Comments. Leave new
I’m just curious. Is this gross pay or net pay (after taxes and other deductions)?
The question is worded as “What’s your total salary in US dollars, ANNUAL BEFORE TAXES?”
But some people don’t have good reading comprehension, so there is no guarantee that everyone answered it that way.
I was able to convince my company to get the full Ozar suite of training for 2025, so I am working to increase my value with knowledge and put that into practice. It’s already garnered me a healthy increase, but still well under the averages.
Just keep plugging away!
Why do you think 2025 hasn’t changed compared to 2024 for SQL Server folks in the US ?
Women earning more is a strange one, but I can kind of see reasons for it. When you first start out in a job, you know nothing, and if you’re being treated differently or having to put up with a lot behaviours that other’s aren’t, you are less likely to stay. (same goes for any other groups facing discrimination).
It makes sense then that the women who do remain have probably been in the industry a while and are therefore in more senior positions. It’s unfortunate as this means less women are entering the SQL workforce.
What I’m getting at is don’t read this and think everything is hunkydory. There’s still work to be done to make our industry a more inclusive space.
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