Which countries pay UX designers the most?

Glassdoor and LevelsFYI collect compensation based on self-reported data. More precise would be to check the actual salaries based on internal HR systems like Workday, Gusto, etc. But how do we get that data?

Pave is integrated with HR systems and has access to salaries of 24,000+ designers. I asked them to share the data on salary differences across countries so I can publish it here.

The salary numbers are normalized by job level, meaning that seniors are compared to seniors, directors to directors, etc.

The US ranks #1, so the rest of the countries are mentioned in relation to the US.

Product Designers Base Pay, relative to US:

1 🇺🇸 USA 100.0%

2 🇨🇭 Switzerland 84.5%

3 🇮🇪 Ireland 74.7%

4 🇦🇺 Australia 68.9%

5 🇳🇴 Norway 66.7%

6 🇸🇬 Singapore 64.8%

7 🇨🇦 Canada 63.7%

8 🇳🇱 Netherlands 62.9%

9 🇳🇿 NZ 62.6%

10 🇬🇧 UK 61.4%

11 🇮🇱 Israel 60.9%

12 🇫🇮 Finland 59.5%

13 🇩🇰 Denmark 56.0%

14 🇩🇪 Germany 53.9%

15 🇯🇵 Japan 53.1%

16 🇮🇹 Italy 52.7%

17 🇧🇪 Belgium 49.5%

18 🇫🇷 France 49.3%

19 🇪🇸 Spain 46.2%

20 🇵🇱 Poland 46.1%

21 🇰🇷 South Korea 44.9%

22 🇸🇪 Sweden 44.3%

23 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 44.2%

24 🇷🇴 Romania 40.4%

25 🇸🇰 Slovakia 40.4%

26 🇵🇹 Portugal 40.2%

27 🇪🇪 Estonia 37.9%

28 🇨🇿 Czechia 37.6%

29 🇺🇦 Ukraine 37.4%

30 🇷🇸 Serbia 37.4%

31 🇦🇲 Armenia 36.8%

32 🇭🇷 Croatia 36.8%

33 🇨🇳 China 36.2%

34 🇬🇷 Greece 35.0%

35 🇲🇽 Mexico 34.8%

36 🇦🇷 Argentina 33.8%

37 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 32.5%

38 🇧🇷 Brazil 30.4%

39 🇭🇺 Hungary 30.0%

40 🇹🇷 Türkiye 29.1%

41 🇻🇳 Vietnam 26.8%

42 🇨🇱 Chile 26.3%

43 🇮🇳 India 25.8%

44 🇿🇦 South Africa 23.1%

45 🇹🇭 Thailand 22.6%

46 🇨🇴 Colombia 21.4%

Salary is only one of many factors to consider when choosing where to live. You should also consider the cost of living, quality of life, health care, vacation days, taxes, etc.

These factors do not always correlate directly, which makes it even more important to consider a variety of them.

For example, London and Singapore have similar salaries, living costs, and quality of life. However, after paying taxes you'll have 28% more money in Singapore.

In the next posts, I will analyze talent density across countries—which countries provide the most opportunities for product designers.