Know Everything About a SQL Developer Salary for Freshers & Experienced Professionals in 2021!

10 min readJun 7, 2021

Do you want to know what a SQL developer’s salary is?
Which country pays the most to SQL developers?
Or are you worried about the career growth of a SQL developer?
Are there any big companies that hire SQL developers?

If these are the questions that bother you as you want to learn SQL language and be a SQL developer? Or a professional developer that wants to update his/her skills then worries not. In this blog, we will not only help you find these answers but also give you detailed information about SQL developer’s jobs, roles, and responsibilities. Additionally, we’ll provide you with some exciting facts and figures about your career as a SQL developer and salary for SQL developer.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Almost all of the biggest companies in technology worldwide use SQL and 63% of them are looking for SQL developers. The popularity of SQL is not really surprising given the amount of data that is collected and churned out by thousands of businesses every single day. That said, it’s only possible to make sense of big data if you have the right person to manage thousands of queries raised simultaneously from different locations and are handled efficiently by skilled backend developers, like SQL developers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the computer and technology occupations category is projected to increase by 13% from 2016 to 2026, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. The increasing number of websites tied to complex data warehouses should fuel growth for SQL developer jobs.

Why do you need to learn SQL?

SQL is used by Google, Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Netflix, Uber, Wells Fargo, Shopify, WordPress, and hundreds of thousands of other companies.
SQL job skills are in high demand almost 65% of data scientists and data analysts said they used SQL.
SQL is one of the most robust and easy-to-use programming languages.
According to Stack Overflow, SQL is the third most popular programming language after HTML/CSS and JavaScript.

Who is a SQL Developer?

SQL developers are responsible for maintaining databases that use billions of bytes to process a simple query like “salon near me”. In an instant, the user has access to the information they are looking for! Interestingly, in the 2020 edition of the Global Technical Hiring and Skills Report, SQL was the #1 IT most developers got tested regardless of their focus. A SQL Developer is responsible for:

Creating, designing, developing, and storing data in the databases
Supporting and writing applications for, and to, the database
Raising queries and processing amends as per the requirement of their organizations
Testing as well as resolving issues during data migration
Writing SQL queries for integrating with other applications.
Creating database tables
Creating procedures for view and functions
Creating database triggers, a procedural code that runs when a specific action occurs.
Maintaining data quality and data security

6 Reasons You’re Getting Paid Less & 6 Tips to Improve this Situation

The best SQL developer career opportunities will go to professionals who have proper skills and certification and training. Additionally, understanding what employers look at when hiring new employees will help you negotiate better when you’re offered a job. Or what else do you need to do in order to achieve the promotion or high paycheck also helps you in your career growth. So here are 6 factors that affect your payscale as a SQL developer. Notably, we’re also providing you with tips on how to tackle these pesky factors:

1.Your Level of Desired Skill Sets

Apart from your educational degree and experience, there is a certain set of skills that is required by job recruiters in a SQL Developer.
These skills not only refer to your technical skills pertaining to your roles and responsibilities as an MS SQL developer or Power BI Developer but also certain additional soft skills.
These soft skills can be great interpersonal skills, strong communication skills that ensure that not only you’ve command over hard skills but also over soft skills so that you stay ahead in terms of professional growth, in comparison to others in the competition.

Tips: Pay equal attention to your tech skills as well soft skills such as command over communication skills, strong interpersonal skills and work on it if you lack any of them. There are both online and offline modes of improving your soft skills to better your overall personality.

2. Your Specific Training & Certifications

Some jobs call for certification especially SQL developer or Data Analyst and if you don’t have one, it might negatively set you at the lower end of the pay range.
If you have earned professional certification in your field that is very attractive to employers it widens your pay range. After all the more training you have, the less training and supervising your employer will have to do, so it’s a win-win for both.

Tip: There are a lot of e-learning platforms or offline training centers out there so reach out to them. They will give you this extra edge by preparing for SQL certifications & courses and upgrade your skills to make you ready for an amazing SQL developer career run.

3. The Location of Where You Work

The location of where you work has a lot of influence on your pay scale. Suppose, your company is located in a large city with high costs of living, it automatically means you need to earn a higher salary for a comfortable lifestyle.
Similarly, if you work for a company located in an area with a low or average cost of living, you can manage with slightly less salary for a SQL developer. For eg., a person making $75,000 working for a company in Silicon Valley might struggle to make ends meet, while a person doing the exact same work for $60,000 in New Orleans could live a very comfortable life.

Tip: This is something that you can control before applying to any job. Before accepting any job, try to find the cost-of-living of that particular city or area to determine the minimum salary for SQL developers you’ll need to be able to live comfortably.

4. Your Poor Job Interview Skills

If it’s essential to have soft as well as hard skills then it’s equally important that you know to display them in the right manner, over resumes, and during job interviews.
A well-prepared SQL developer resume & interview is a key to attract the amazing SQL Database developer salary.

Tip: You can join SQL Developer Training online, where you can hone your skills or be prepared for your next job interview and also armor you with job-ready skills. This one small lookout can concrete your chances of getting the right job at an attractive salary for SQL developers.

5. Your Negotiation Skills

There are companies out there that have a set career growth plan for their employees and you’ll achieve growth or hike in pay scale according to that.
However, it is recommended that you should be aware of the kind of remuneration you deserve. You should never be rude while negotiating the salary for the SQL developer part but always know when to walk out if our deserving demands are not being paid.

Tip: You need to stay up to date with the market trends and demands such that you do not go over the top while asking for the desired salary for a SQL developer.

6. Your Company Size & Type

Though every company has its own salary range and parameters that they’ve set to offer to their employees. Parameters like scale purpose, & investment & which is why they have different salary allocations.
But it’s no rocket science that the bigger the company, the bigger will be its operations & customer base. They will even have their own app, software, or database to manage, which will require a high-end SQL developers team at a high-level SQL Database Developer Salary.

Tip: We’re not recommending you to always go for the bigger fish in the job market as there can be times when a job at a smaller or medium-sized company suits you better. The choice is yours but always stay prepared to grab an opportunity to work with the Big 4s through proper certification and training and even personal development course to improve your chances.

Which Top IT Giants are hiring SQL Developers and How much a SQL Developer Salary is?

SQL Developer Salary in Top 10 Companies

COMTEC Information Systems Avg. Salary: $143,667
System Soft Technologies Avg. Salary: $142,947 p.a.
DISYS Avg. Salary: $138,109 p.a.
Amazon Avg. Salary: ₹3,60,000 p.a.
Innovative Management Concepts Avg. Salary: $131,914 p.a.
Oracle Avg Salary: $131,878 p.a.
Microsoft Avg Salary: $106,717 p.a.
Anthem Avg. Salary: $102,380 p.a.
PLS Financial Services: Avg. Salary: $94,396 p.a.

What is the Salary for SQL Developer?

Note that your salary grows with experience and expertise in your particular field. Also, with time as you continue to develop and upgrade your skills both tech and soft skills, you begin to perform your role with higher efficiency. Getting a certification in SQL development doesn’t guarantee you a job, it simply enhances your chances of getting promoted to higher job positions or enabling you to better your paycheck. Now, let’s discuss what a SQL developer salary looks like based on job roles and what you get in which country.

SQL Developer Average Salary: Based on Experience

An entry-level Microsoft SQL Developer salary or SQL developer salary for fresher with less than 1-year experience can expect to earn somewhere around $55,063.
A mid-career SQL Database Developer salary with 5–9 years of experience is $80,967.
An experienced SQL Developer salary with 10–19 years of experience is nearly $91,015.
In his late career (20 years and higher), a SQL Developer salary is over $100,409

SQL Developer Salary: Based on Employer

Let us now discuss how much the top employers pay employees with SQL Developer certificates. COMTEC Information Systems has average pay of $143,667. Other companies that offer high salaries for these roles include System Soft Technologies and DISYS, demanding a salary of $142,947 p.a. and $138,109 p.a. respectively.

SQL Developer Average Salary: Based on Skill-set

There is a difference in salaries in terms of skill set as well as a Data Analyst’s Avg. Salary is somewhere close to $86k. While a Senior Software Engineer Avg. Salary is over $87k and can reach nearly $158k. A Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst earns nearly $96k and a Financial Analyst can demand an average salary of $82k. So prepare well so that you can get your desired Microsoft SQL developer salary.

SQL Developer Salary: Based on Location

Where you work as in the location or the area also plays a vital role in influencing your salary as a SQL developer. Across the globe, one can see a huge variation in the salaries based on the location, as there are hundreds of factors that play a role in deciding the living standard, salary, or even demand of a particular skill set at a location.

Let us talk about some of the major locations across the world which are the top favorites of most people and show what will be your SQL database developer salary on average.

Job Status based on Top Job Portals

Before applying to any job position, it’s an important step for you to know the availability of the particular job profile in real-time. And in order to give you the right insight, let us quickly have a look at the real-time numbers in terms of available jobs as a SQL developer.

We have gathered the information from some of the top Job Portals from the US, India, UK, Australia, Canada, etc.

There are about 2675 SQL developer jobs in the USA

About 2300 vacancies are up for SQL developers in Australia

There are a total of 133644 job openings for SQL developers in India according to Naukari.com

More than 2200 jobs are available in the UK according to LinkedIn

About 4826 vacancies are up for SQL developers in Canada

Salaries on Jobs related to SQL Developer

SQL Developer is a database specialist tasked with developing and maintaining systems to store, organize, and access data. This is a highly technical role that incorporates different aspects of computer programming, software engineering, and data architecture and management. Since there are so many components of managing, organizing, and securing databases that there are many job profiles that you can apply for based on your interest, skills, certifications, and experience. We’re listing a few of the job profiles related to SQL Developer along with an average salary in the particular profession:

Software Engineer Avg. Salary: $128k
Software Developer Avg. Salary: $105k
Data Analyst Avg. Salary: $86k
Senior Software Engineer Avg. Salary: $158k
Sr. Software Engineer/Developer/Programmer Avg. Salary: $144k
Financial Analyst Avg. Salary: $82k
Administrative Assistant Avg. Salary: $57k
Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst Avg. Salary: $96k
Business Intelligence (BI) Developer Avg. Salary: $111k

Conclusion

With the amount of data being generated every day, you can be assured that the demand for IT skills is here to stay. In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that the IT industry will be growing by 22% by the time 2029 comes. Behind this surge of growth is a need for new applications, software, and programs across all kinds of industries. Naturally, the demand for professionals who can give meaningful direction to the data is going to be high too with 63% of companies looking for SQL developers.

We hope this blog has helped you clear your doubts regarding job opportunities as a SQL developer, career growth aspects as well as give an in-depth overview of the career benefits, average salaries, and what are the top companies that are hiring SQL developers across the world.