Why Ukraine?

Summary

About 7% of country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated in field of IT (around 3.5 bln USD in year 2015) and it is expected to be increasing up to 15% of GDP by 2020. All of those numbers take into account also the segment (market of free lancers etc.)

Estimated number of developers in Ukraine is more than 130 000 people. Number of IT specialists grows annually by 10-20% (as an example 90 000 in 2014 vs. 110 000 in 2015).

The biggest share of this number is highly qualified IT personnel working in Outsourcing and Offshore Delivery Centers for largest global international software development companies (around 58% according to information from different sources).

What distinguishes Ukraine from other nearshoring IT destinations is a strong technical / mathematics background of majority of university graduates/ IT workers, comfortable geographic / time-zone location and high concentration of IT personnel in 4 major cities (Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa)

IT Professionals Overview / Salary Statistics

In recent years Ukraine has seen an influx of American / European software development companies, both large /small entering the market. The competition for the local talent has increased dramatically, but so has the number of specialist both graduating the universities / requalifying from other technical fields (engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, physicist etc.)

The latest salary statistics can be found below. Please note that all of these number are NET sallary received by workers per month in USD.

  • System Architect – 4500USD/month
  • Director of Engineering – 4500 USD/month
  • Technical Lead – 4000 USD/month
  • Senior PM – 4000USD/month
  • Team Lead – 3500 USD/month
  • Senior SE – 3500 USD/month
  • QA Tech Lead – 2800 USD/month
  • Scrum Master – 2700USD/month
  • Senior QA – 2500USD/month
  • Product Manager – 2200USD/month
  • DevOps – 2200 USD/month
  • Software Engineer – 2000 USD/month
  • Business Analyst – 2000 USD/month

Basic programming languages salaries (Java/C#/.NET/C++) for junior/middle/senior developers are in average 800/2000/3500 USD per month.

Common Employee Benefits / Perks

Although many of IT specialist are hired as contractors (to save on payroll taxes), its generally accepted they receive off the book benefits identical to those of full time employees.

Vacation:

24 calendar days a year. An employee is obliged take at least 14 days in a row, unless otherwise provided by employer. Vacation may be claimed after at least 6 months of employment.

Sick Leave:

Up to 21 days paid by the employer, unless other is specified in the agreement.

Medical insurance:

Reputable IT companies provide their employees with medical insurance coverage from private insurance companies. But this together with exact insurance package can be negotiable.

Compensation of Gym costs:

Typically offered in addition to the Medical insurance.

Professional trainings/workshops, trips to company HQ(abroad), corporate events:

This is one of the most important perks for the middle / senior level personnel. Often times this factor alone outweighs the other benefits a company may offer.

Business Climate

According to information by World Bank Group’s www.doingbusiness.org, Ukraine is ranked as 30th place in the world regarding ‘starting a business’ criteria.

Despite the political instability since 2013, it still remains very beneficial for international IT companies to carry out development in Ukraine due to significant number of IT professionals.

As it was mentioned above, the IT industry in Ukraine grows rapidly bringing new international software development companies to Ukraine’s economy.

We can help our partners in any aspect of starting operations in Ukraine.

Taxes and Legislation

Majority of developers in Ukraine prefer to work as contractors instead of employees due to high salary tax rates.

Employer should pay 18% personal income tax, 1.5% military tax and 22% social payment. In total employers are levied with 41.5% of salary tax.

Developers may arrange their own legal entities and work as contractors. Within a simplified taxation system for small and medium businesses, tax rates constitute up to 5% of income. This way the developer receives service fee instead of salary, saving significant amount as tax optimization. Employers are also interested in such cooperation, trying to help developers in accountancy and tax filing.