UK software developers want more money and to work from home

British software developers feel they are underpaid and want the option to work from home. A report by Stack Overflow reveals that as many as 45 per cent of UK developers think they deserve more money. When you take London out of the equation that number soars, with 64 per cent of Northern Irelanders particularly disgruntled.

Unsurprisingly then, the majority of the highest-paid software developer jobs are inside the capital to reflect the higher rate of living. While more than half of all software developers in Northern Ireland, the Midlands, and Wales earn less than £35,000 on average, those in London take home £50,000 each year.

And the wage gap only gets wider when you look at the top coders around the country. In London, the top 5 per cent of developers earn just under £100,000, while the top 5 per cent in Northern Ireland bring home half as much.

As well as being disgruntled about the amount of cash in their pockets, developers – especially the older ones – also don’t want to be in the office. According to the report, 38 per cent of developers with under four years experience consider working remotely integral to their work. However, that number rises to 51 per cent of developers with over 20 years experience.

This falls in line with the vision of the future workplace outlined by Senior VP at Canonical, Chris Kenyon. “We have created an environment where developers and engineers can achieve more from home than they can in the working world,” he said during an industry breakfast on big data last month. In stead he believes that specialist teams of developers should be ‘unchained’ and given licence to be creative disruptors. “Getting a small team to work efficiently is the best way to progressing your business. It is about finding 15-20 people at each organisation and tearing up the rulebook for them. We are in an extraordinary period of creative disruption. Organisations that think it is acceptable to do 18 month procurement procedures are not in the real world.”

The Stack Overflow report also showed that younger developers are more ambitious, with 27 per cent saying that wanted to change the world, compared to just 11.5 per cent of older developers.