A Snapshot of Tech Sector Compensation Changes in 2024
October 21, 2024
The tech sector employment market in Canada has faced a challenging landscape in 2024, marked by ongoing layoffs which have prompted companies to adopt more targeted approaches to workforce and talent management. This was reflected in a lower voluntary turnover rate, which dropped to a median of 9% in the past year. Despite the layoffs, the demand for critical tech skills remains strong, with both traditional tech companies and non-traditional industries competing for the same talent pool.
What happened with salaries in 2024?
Salary pressure has cooled down with the median salary increase across common incumbents in TAP Network’s 2024 Salary and Total Rewards Survey reported at 3.8%. This aligns more closely with salary budgets and indicates a reduced dependence on off-cycle pay increases, in contrast with the previous year’s 7.5% median salary increase. Despite the more conservative pay increase average there is a focus on certain high-demand roles such as mechanical engineers, marketing professionals, business analysts, technical customer support managers, machine learning engineers, and research scientists.
Beyond salaries – bonus payouts, flexible work, and benefits.
Beyond salaries, there are some noticeable trends in total compensation and benefits. While bonus payouts continue to fall below targets, more employees are receiving these payouts, with eligibility for short-term incentives rising to 44% in 2024, up from 39% in 2023.
The tech sector continues to prioritize flexible work arrangements, with remote work capabilities and flexible hours remaining the most common perks within the sector. There has also been a continued investment in employee health and wellbeing, demonstrated by the increased offering of family leave top-up benefits, RRSP matching, and paid time off to volunteer. These benefits have seen substantial growth over the past few years, with family leave top-ups now offered by 61% of companies and RRSP matching now being offered by 57% of companies. Paid volunteering time is offered by 49% of the surveyed companies.
Looking to 2025
As we look to 2025, our recent member pulse survey tells us that salary increase budgets remain uncertain for some companies, with a few considering salary freezes. However, the majority are planning for modest increases in the 3%-5% range, with business performance, turnover/retention, inflation, and pay equity being key considerations in budget planning. This is the second year in a row that pay equity has been a top consideration for budgets. Stay tuned to see if this focus on pay equity has shrunk the gender pay gap in tech.
About TAP Network’s Tech Sector Salary and Total Rewards Survey
TAP Network partners with Mercer to produce an annual salary and total rewards survey focused on the Canadian tech sector, reporting on local and national salaries, total compensation, detailed policy data, and more. Survey participants include startups, scale ups and large multinationals representing a broad cross section of subsectors such as software products, AI, clean tech, hardware design and manufacturing, VFX, animation, video game and interactive digital media and more. Survey submissions were collected in Spring 2024 and results were published in September 2024.
Purchase TAP Network’s Salary and Total Rewards Survey here.