Executive Summary

THE 2016 DESIGN SALARY SURVEY investigates the tools, tasks, and compensation of designers, UX specialists, and others in the design space based on data collected in an online, anonymous survey. The 324 respondents largely worked in the design of web/mobile products or connected devices, and came from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds. We paid special attention to the software designers use—respondents were asked which of more than 100 tools they use—and usage correlations between them.

Key findings include:

• UX designers earn a median salary of $91K ($99K for US-based respondents)
• California respondents report the highest wages
• Age doesn’t predict salary, years of experience do
• Women are paid less than men—even when all other variables match
• Most UX designers tend to use one of two software stacks: one anchored by Adobe Illustrator, the other anchored by Sketch
• Those who code (even just a little) earn more
• When respondents provide tool and task information, job title becomes less useful for predicting salaries

In a rather manual, low-tech way, this report is interactive: just plug your own data into the linear regression model to get a salary prediction (no buttons, just do the math). You can press actual buttons, and earn our sincere gratitude, by taking the survey—it only takes about 5 to 10 minutes and is crucial for us to continue providing this kind of research: oreilly.com/design/2017-design-salary-survey.