While tech salaries dropped slightly overall in 2023, they rose in healthcare, illustrating the continued competition for health IT workers, a new report from Dice found.
Tech pay experienced "unprecedented" growth from 2019 to 2021, rising 9% in that period as companies were flush with cash to compensate tech staff, according to the career website. But some of those organizations have since scaled back, with 211,000 tech layoffs in 2023 and salaries dropping slightly, from $111,348 to $111,193. Dice called it a "sharp but brief correction in the tech talent market."
Healthcare paid an average tech salary of $117,578 in 2023, up 4.5% from a year earlier, the Jan. 30 report found. That pay level ranks healthcare eighth out of the top 25 industries. Aerospace and defense led the way at $130,574.
The healthcare industry also has the sixth-fastest growing tech salaries, an increase of 4.5% since 2021, per Dice's analysis of more than 6,000 survey responses. Government (not including education) tech workers' pay has expanded the quickest (14.8%).
Here are the top 25 industries by average tech salary, according to Dice:
1. Aerospace and Defense: $130,574
2. Software: $130,559
3. Medical/Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology: $128,141
4. Bank/Finance: $126,226
5. Consulting: $125,160
6. Utilities/Energy: $119,880
7. Insurance: $117,612
8. Healthcare: $117,578
9. Telecommunications: $114,368
10. Entertainment (Movies, Games)/Media: $113,860
11. Government (not including Education): $113,436
12. Consumer Products: $110,992
13. Retail/E-commerce: $109,336
14. Professional Services (Accounting, Legal, Staffing): $107,269
15. Transportation/Logistics: $107,064
16. IT: $105,555
17. Manufacturing: $103,622
18. Hospitality/Travel: $99,276
19. Internet Services: $97,185
20. Nonprofit: $96,344
21. Real Estate: $93,400
22. Distributor/Wholesale: $89,987
23. Marketing/Advertising: $87,330
24. Construction/Home Building: $87,261
25. Education: $85,589