Tech Salaries: Bubble or Fair Compensation?
A developer's rebuttal and self-doubt in response to claims that IT salaries are abnormally high
Why People Call It a Bubble
The average salary for a backend developer with 5 years of experience is about 68 million won. For a comparable office worker, it's around 42 million won -- a 1.6x gap. This is why people say "IT salaries are a bubble."
Especially after the 2021-2022 era when job-hopping meant a 30-50% raise as baseline, the perception that "salaries went up abnormally" became entrenched. And to be fair, salary tables really did spike in an unusual way back then.
The Way I See It
It's not quite right to call it a definitive bubble. There are other angles to consider.
IT labor demand keeps growing. According to the Software Policy Institute, the IT talent shortage was about 72,000 positions as of 2025. When demand exceeds supply, wages go up -- that's Econ 101.
Think about the value a single developer creates. A service generating 10 billion won in revenue can be built by a team of 10 developers. That's 1 billion won in revenue contribution per person -- a 70 million won salary looks like a perfectly rational investment from the company's perspective.
Compared to the US, Korean IT salaries are actually low. A developer with comparable experience in Silicon Valley makes around $150,000-200,000, roughly 200-270 million won. Over 3x the Korean figure. Even accounting for cost of living differences, the gap is significant.
But Honestly
I can't say it's all perfectly rational either.
During the 2021 hiring wars, people were landing 50 million won starting salaries straight out of a 6-month coding bootcamp. Higher starting pay than 10-year veterans in other professions. Market price or not, it did feel excessive.
Things have corrected significantly now. Junior hiring has slowed, and bootcamp graduate starting salaries have come down to the 35-40 million won range. Whether 2021 was the anomaly and now is the norm, or whether current levels are undervalued, remains to be seen.
Different Stories by Role
There's huge variance within IT itself. AI/ML engineers command a 30-40% premium over comparable experience levels. Infrastructure/DevOps roles also pay well because supply is tight relative to demand.
On the other hand, publishers, web designers, and simple maintenance developers are seeing stagnant or even declining salaries. It's not "all IT pays well" -- it's "certain IT specialties pay well."
Even among backend developers, company size creates salary gaps of 20 million won or more. The difference between 5 years at a major tech company versus 5 years at a small company is substantial. It shows how meaningless averages really are.
Looking Ahead
As AI improves coding productivity, the scenario of "doing the same work with fewer developers" is becoming feasible. That could shift the supply-demand balance and create downward pressure on salaries.
But historically, while automation has eliminated specific jobs, demand for software itself has never decreased. Better tools mean more things can be built, which means more work.
Whether it's a bubble or not ultimately depends on how demand holds up, and that's hard to answer definitively right now. My gut says the top 30% of developers will see their salaries hold steady or increase, while the rest will face adjustments. Though I'm not even sure I'm in that top 30%.