What is the salary of a senior developer today? Have salary increases kept pace with the cost of living this year? And why are people who say they plan to stay with their current employers still considering other career opportunities?

These are some of the questions we regularly hear in conversations with company directors, HR leaders and IT professionals. They all point to the same need: making decisions about salaries, hiring and employee retention based on data rather than assumptions.

That is why we research Serbia’s technology market year after year. The latest edition, Serbian Tech Market Report 26/27, also introduces an important new feature: for the first time, research findings are available through an online platform.

What do this year’s data tell us about salaries, job security and IT professionals’ expectations? We have highlighted several key findings that best illustrate the current state of the market.

IT Salaries: How Much Do Junior, Mid-Level and Senior Professionals Earn?

The median monthly net salary for technical roles is:

• €1,250 at junior level,
• €2,000 at mid-level,
• €3,300 at senior level.

The median represents the salary at the exact midpoint of a distribution: half of the recorded salaries fall below it and half above it. Unlike the average, which can be significantly skewed by a few exceptionally high salaries, the median remains anchored to the middle of the distribution. This is why it often provides a more realistic picture of how much people actually earn in a particular role.

But the median is only the starting point. For the same role and seniority level, the difference between the median and the 90th percentile averages 28%.

This means that the salary at the 90th percentile—below which approximately 90% of recorded salaries in that group fall—is, on average, 28% higher than the median. This is why a single figure is not enough to describe the market value of a role.

For employers, this distinction matters. If they base their hiring budgets exclusively on the median, they may find that their offers are not competitive for candidates whose salaries fall within the upper end of the market range.

Differences also exist between roles. In this year’s sample, the median salary for a senior Site Reliability Engineer was 38% higher than the overall median for the senior technical group—the largest gap among the senior technical roles examined.

This does not mean that every SRE earns more than every senior developer. Rather, it illustrates just how much salaries can vary even among professionals at the same seniority level. When comparing salaries, it is therefore just as important to consider the specific role as it is to consider years of experience or seniority.

More Salary Increases, but Rarely in Line with Inflation

Compared with last year, more respondents report that salaries have been increased at their companies. Nevertheless, only 19% of employees say their company has increased salaries in line with inflation.

For employers, this means that a salary increase alone does not necessarily translate into greater employee satisfaction. If earnings do not keep pace with the rising cost of living, employees may feel that, despite receiving a raise, they actually have less money available than before.

That is why it is not just the size of a salary increase that matters, but also how employees perceive its value in relation to their own expenses, responsibilities and the salaries they could earn elsewhere in the market.

A Market Under Cost Pressure

Cost pressures are also reflected in employees’ experiences:

• 53% of employees work at companies that have introduced cost-cutting measures in the past 12 months.
• 39% say their company has experienced more layoffs than usual.

Among employees whose companies show all three signs of pressure—cost-cutting, increased layoffs and slower hiring—57% report a decline in job satisfaction. Where none of these factors is present, that figure drops to 21%.

These findings do not prove that cost-cutting measures directly cause lower job satisfaction, but they do reveal a clear association between business uncertainty and how employees experience their work.

For leaders, this is an important signal. Cost reductions are sometimes necessary, but the way a company explains changes, sets priorities and communicates its plans can be crucial to maintaining employee trust.

More Employees Plan to Stay, but Remain Open to Change

Some 58% of employees see themselves staying with the same company for the next two years, up from 47% last year. This is one of the most significant shifts compared with the previous year.

At first glance, this is good news for employers. However, a greater willingness to stay does not automatically translate into stronger loyalty. During a period of market uncertainty, staying may be a choice driven by security rather than genuine satisfaction with one’s current job.

Another finding supports this interpretation: among employees who plan to stay, one in two would still accept another job offer. Only three in ten employees plan to stay and would turn down an offer from another employer.

For companies, this is an important reminder that a stable headcount is not the same as successful talent retention. People may stay while remaining ready to leave as soon as a sufficiently attractive opportunity arises.

We explore this topic further in our article, Why People in IT Leave Their Jobs.

Employee Benefits: What Is Standard Today, and What Sets Employers Apart?

As many as 92% of employees in our sample report having private health insurance. Once an important selling point for attracting candidates, this benefit has now effectively become a market standard.

This means that simply offering health insurance is becoming less of a differentiator for employers. The quality of coverage, access to services and other elements of the overall benefits package are increasingly what set companies apart.

AI: From a New Tool to Everyday Practice

AI is now part of everyday work: 97% of employees use AI tools themselves, and one in two users say these tools save them four or more hours per week.

Although these figures are based on employees’ own estimates, the results show just how deeply AI is already embedded in their work. This raises a new question for companies: not whether employees use AI, but how they use it, how much it actually helps them, and how the time saved is translated into better results.

What Do These Findings Mean for Leaders?

This year’s results reveal a market where salaries continue to rise, yet employees do not necessarily feel financially better off. More people plan to stay with their current employers, but that does not mean they have stopped considering other opportunities. At the same time, cost pressures and changes in the way people work are creating new demands for companies.

In this environment, decisions about compensation and employee retention cannot easily be made based on a single metric. The median tells you where the middle of the market lies, but it does not tell you whether your company is competitive for the specific roles and people it wants to retain.

Jaka Lounge tip: When setting salaries, do not rely on a single market benchmark. Look at the full salary range for the specific role and seniority level—including the minimum, median, 90th percentile and maximum—and compare it with your employees’ responsibilities, experience and performance.

Pay particular attention to employees whose salaries fall significantly below relevant market benchmarks. They may be more open to changing jobs, even if they say today that they have no plans to leave.

The goal of effective salary benchmarking is not simply to understand what the market pays, but to identify in time where your company may be at risk of losing the people it wants to retain.

Where to Find More Information

The full report contains 11 chapters and a Salary Guide featuring salary ranges for 67 roles across all seniority levels. On the reports.jakalounge.com platform, you can explore a free demo featuring the first five chapters, the Appendix and salary tools for one role. For full access, get in touch with us.

The data comes from Jaka Lounge’s 2026 research on Serbia’s technology market, published in the Serbian Tech Market Report 26/27. Comparisons with 2025 are based on the edition published in October 2025.

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