There are wide disparities in salary rates among IT specialists. This can be explained by a variety of factors: hard and soft skills of a certain person, their position in the company, location of the said company, etc. We questioned data analytics from Russia and other countries using social networks and then visualized the information obtained in Power BI, which enabled us to discover relevant data and make consequent conclusions.
In this article we focus on Data Visualization and results interpretation, without the details of relevant statistical calculations. We also demonstrate the possibility to receive data through visualization tools in Power BI.
Research details
We prepared a questionnaire in google forms and offered it to our respondents. The 4 points of the questionnaire contained questions about their annual net salary range, assessment of their own salary relative to the market, their position in the company, and company location. Approximately five hundred analysts took part in the poll, most of them from Russia and CIS countries, with some answers coming from America, Australia, and Madagascar. The results were not as obvious as expected.
Visualization details
The final version of the dashboard with answers visualized is shown in figure 1.

We started by presenting the annual net salary in a stacked column chart (fig. 2). The salary range is divided into seven groups, from levels lower than 7,000 $ to more than 32,000$. We also calculated and added Net Promoter Score (NPS) to this chart.
Generally, NPS shows how likely consumers are to recommend a certain organization/service to others [1]. In this study we used NPS as a metric for estimating pay level satisfaction.

Below is the respondents’ estimation of their salary rate relative to the market grouped into three levels: lower, medium, and upper. The funnel illustrates a person’s position in the company (director, head of department, specialist). (A funnel is a useful and simple tool that can be used to change information for every position just by clicking on it).

The map and bars below demonstrate the ratio between citizens of the Russian Federation and those from other countries, as well as the ratio between those who live in capitals and in regions. Clicking on these bars, we can see a comparison of net salary rates.

It also shows the total amount of respondents and a link, which serves as an invitation to take part in our survey (upper part of the dashboard).
Discussion
In the current study, we questioned about 500 professionals in data analytics. 86 percent of them work in Russia while others are employed in CIS countries. The share of people living in regions and capitals is almost equal: 49% compared to 51 %. 7 % work as CEOs, 22% as directors of different departments, and the remaining 70% are specialists. More than half of them (57%) consider their net salary to be average on the labor market. The other 43% are split into those who think that their net income is lower than average (27%) and higher than average (16%).
Three net salary ranges in our research were the most cited. 20 percent of people interviewed earn between 13 and 16 thousand dollars per year, 17 % of them make $9,000-$12,000, and 16% have $0-$8,000. It is noteworthy that only 9% of the respondents earn more than $34,000 per year.
However, analytics whose salary falls within the range of 26–36 thousand dollars have a positive NPS. This means that only 20% of all respondents are generally satisfied with their income rates.
Looking at the group of CEOs, we found out that 34% of all executives in our research earn more than $32,000 per year. They estimate their salary as relevant to the market or above average figures and are generally satisfied with their pay levels. However, less than 1 percent think that they earn less than average. (Statistically, those who make less than $23,000 are unsatisfied with their income). The picture below shows CEO’s pay levels with the NPS coefficient.

As concerns heads of departments, their salary ranges are distributed more uniformly than those of CEOs, which is shown in the picture below. Six percent of them make less than $7,000 per year, while 14% are in the middle of the distribution curve ($16,000 ‒ $19,000), and 16 % earn more than $34,000. Predictably, it is only the last group that is satisfied with their net income, according to NPS. At the same time, 13% of department heads claim that their net salary is adequate in the market, and 6 % view it as lower than average.

The results for the group of specialists differ significantly from the results of the previous two. The salary distribution curve presented in picture 7 shows that the numbers of analysts who earn less than $7,000, those who make $9,000–12,000, and those who have $13,000–16,000 are almost equal. It’s about 20%. 12 percent earn more than $24,000 per year. Forty percent believe that their net income falls within average rates, while 21% believe it to be lower, and 10% claim it to be higher.
NPS figures reveal that twenty-three percent of specialists whose salary is higher than $20,000 per year are satisfied by their pay levels.

Comparing respondents who work in regions and capitals, we can see that 34% of specialists, 25% department heads and 7% CEOs live in regional areas. Picture 8 shows that the net salary lower than $7,000 is restricted to specialists from regions (28% of all respondents). Interestingly, the NPS index reveals that specialists living in regions are more satisfied with their pay rates than those residing in capitals. Regional analytics are pleased with salaries higher than $12,000, whereas their counterparts from capitals are happy with incomes over $24,000.

Conclusion
The aim of our research was to discover how data analytics from the Russian Federation and CIS countries estimate their salary rate. Three different positions – CEOs, heads of departments, and specialists – were considered in this connection. Generally, 56 percent of respondents consider their salary to be consistent with the average market rate, 28% are unsatisfied with their pay and would consequently like to earn more money, whereas 16% believe that they receive more than average.
Another important finding is that 2% of CEOs are unsatisfied with their pay rate and earn less than $7,000 per year, while some specialists (4%) make more than $32,000 per year and rate their income as above average. This reflects the current situation with IT specialists in the labor market: good IT specialists have higher pay rates, which sometimes exceed the average figures on the market. Although multiple factors are usually considered, there are some specialists (not CEOs or department heads) whose salaries can be much higher than average.
Another pervasive tendency relates to the centralization of resources in Russia and CIS countries. The difference between living standards in capitals and regions is significant, which is further corroborated by this study. Although regional average net salary is lower, people are more satisfied by the rates than their metropolitan counterparts are, even if the latter receive better payment.
All results were visualized with the use of Power Bi. Basic interactive tools, such as maps, bar charts, and funnels enabled easier and faster data processing.
References
- Reichheld, F. F. (2003). The one number you need to grow. Harvard Business Review, 81, 46–54.