With over 200 programming languages available, it's crucial to identify which ones offer the highest salaries in 2024 for developers. From 01-September-2023 to 01-December-2024, DevJobsScanner has analyzed more than 10M dev job offers from around the world to help us understand the market and the most trending and paid languages. For this study, we focused exclusively on jobs from the United States. This guarantees a more coherent and representative result, significantly minimizing any potential data deviations.
From a total of 10 million development jobs, 1.5 million had salaries. Out of that 1.5 million, 260,000 could be categorized under programming languages. Among those 260,000, approximately 142,000 job offers were from the United States
Let's deep on the top list 👇
10 - Python
Python is one’s of the most popular languages nowadays. It is also the Top 10th highest-paid job. Python is a non-typed high level language. It has a full range of utilities, from scripting and tooling to writing entire web applications with Django framework. It is also heavily used in data science.
While the average salary of a python developer is $124K per year, some offers reached the amount of $500K per year.
- Salary mean: ~$124K
- Salary median: $120k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 19K jobs
- Keywords: Python, Django, Flask.
Go to top paid Python jobs.
9 - Kotlin
Kotlin, known for its modern syntax and seamless compatibility with Java, continues to gain traction in 2024. Widely used for Android development, Kotlin’s concise and expressive nature has led to its adoption in server-side applications, web development, and even data science.
The average salary of a Kotlin developer is $124K, with some roles offering up to $200K annually, reflecting the growing demand for this versatile language.
- Salary mean: ~$124K
- Salary median: $119K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 279 jobs
- Keywords: Kotlin, Android.
Go to top paid Kotlin jobs.
8 - Go
Since it’s launch in 2007 by Google team members, Go has gained popularity. It’s simple, easy to use and gets things done quickly. Go is heavily influenced by C but also has the memory safety, garbage collection and structural typing major enhancements.
- Salary mean: ~$125k
- Salary median: $125k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 2K jobs
- Keywords: Go.
Go to top paid Go jobs
7 - Ruby
Ruby language has been popular for many years and is still rocking. There is pretty high demand and most of it high paid. Ruby is mainly popular for web development, in conjunction with the famous Ruby on Rails framework. It also has other utilities, from scripting and prototyping to game development (using DragonRuby). Given its polyvalence it would never be a bad choice to learn, it is also a high-level language that ends in a fast development of applications (similar to Python).
The median salary ($135k) for a Ruby developer surpasses the mean ($131k). This indicates a robust demand for mid-level and senior Ruby professionals, suggesting that expertise in Ruby often leads to higher-than-average compensation.
- Salary mean: ~$131k
- Salary median: $135k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 3.6K jobs
- Keywords: Ruby, Ruby on Rails.
Go to top paid Ruby jobs
6 - Scala
In the Top sixth spot, we find Scala. Scala is a high-level language that combines object-oriented and functional programming. It can be compiled to Java bytecode and run on a Java virtual machine (JVM). It was firstly designed to solve some of the ‘flaws’ and criticism made over Java. It has a strong and enthusiast community. It also has a good surrounding libraries, that makes it easy to start with it.
While average Scala developer salary is $131k, some offers reached peaks of approximately $400k per year.
- Salary mean: ~$131k
- Salary median: $125k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 848 jobs
- Keywords: Scala.
Check out top paid Scala jobs
5 - C/C++
C/C++ holds a solid top 5 spot with an average salary of ~$132K per year. Its usage in the industry is widely extended, C++ can be found on video games, servers, databases, space probes and many others. It is also heavily used in the blockchain ecosystem, Bitcoin or the Solidity Smart Contract language are written entirely with C++.
Go to top paid C/C++ jobs
4 - Bash
Bash, the Unix shell scripting language, secures its spot as the fourth highest-paid programming language. Despite being simple, Bash's utility in automating system tasks, managing infrastructure, and writing deployment scripts makes it indispensable in many organizations.
The average salary for professionals skilled in Bash is $133K, with some top offers exceeding $300K annually.
- Salary mean: ~$133K
- Salary median: $125K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 369 jobs
- Keywords: Bash, Shell Scripting.
Go to top paid Bash jobs.
3 - ABAP
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) rounds out the list as one of the highly valued languages in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) ecosystem for 2024. ABAP is a high-level programming language created by SAP for developing applications on the SAP platform. It has been the backbone for SAP applications since the 1980s, allowing for custom development and modification of SAP applications.
Go to top paid ABAP jobs
2 - Rust
Rust is the top two highest paid languge with an average salary of ~$140k!💸 Rust salaries and popularity are both on the rise. Similar to C++, but with more advanced features like memory safety or safe concurrency, has made it a perfect choice for high performance big applications. Its recent usage in web3/blockchain has also been a key factor. For example, Solana contracts are not made in Solidity, they are made in Rust.
While the average Rust developer salary is $140K per year, some offers reached $500K per year.
- Salary mean: ~$140k
- Salary median: $134k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 309 jobs
- Keywords: Rust.
Go to top paid Rust jobs
1 - Solidity
In the top one spot, as the highest-paid language in 2024 with an average salary of $178K, we find Solidity!🏆 The language invented for the former team behind Ethereum is getting a lot of traction recently. The low candidates there are for the position has made the salaries sky rocket. Solidity is a high-level object-oriented programming language. It is used to write the logic behind the smart contracts that runs in most of the blockchains nowadays.
While the average salary is $178k per year, some offers reached a peak of $750K dollars. So, if you are in web3 and blockchain technologies, learning solidity should be a must.
- Salary mean: ~$178k
- Salary median: $180k
- Jobs Found (with salary): 154 jobs
- Keywords: Solidity, Blockchain, Web3.
Go to top paid Solidity jobs
Full List of Top-Paid Languages in the US
Below is the complete list of average salaries, in dollars, for each programming language in the United States.
Important: Programming languages with less than 100 jobs (with salary) are discarded in the blog, but are included here. Remember again that all jobs are exclusively from the United States.
In the following chart, we present the salary distribution for each programming language in 2024. The blue boxes represent the interquartile range (IQR), the white bar shows the median value, and the orange bar signifies the average value.
How has this study been made?
The main objective of this study is to extract as much valuable information as possible from the scraped jobs data. To achieve this, the following conditions were applied to each job in the dataset:
- The job must have a salary.
- The job's salary should be greater than $10,000 and less than $1 million.
- The job should be from the United States.
- The job can be categorized under one or more programming languages.
After applying these conditions, we found that out of a total of 10 million development jobs, 1.5 million had salaries. Out of that 1.5 million, 260,000 could be categorized under programming languages. Among those 260,000, approximately 142,000 job offers were from the United States.
How does job categorization into programming languages work?
To categorize dev jobs into programming languages, only the title has been used. This is because we want just the jobs that explicitly require a programming language.
For example, a job with the title "Backend developer", even it has stack defined and also description with job requirements, is discarded and does not count for any language. Otherwise, a job with the title "React Developer" would count as JavaScript / TypeScript, and likewise a job with the title "Laravel Developer" would count as PHP.
Is also important to note that one job offer can count for 2 or more languages. For example a job with the title "Full Stack Developer (Django/Angular)" will count for languages Python and JavaScript / TypesScript.
