What UK Software Engineers Actually Earn in 2026 - Why Every Salary Site is Wrong
UK software engineer salary - everyone quotes a different number.
Glassdoor says £55K. IT Jobs Watch says £70K. Levels.fyi says £84K. Turns out there are two completely different salary clusters, and the gap between them explains why everyone's confused.
I cross-referenced 11 sources including ONS ASHE (HMRC payroll data from 343,000 software engineers), IT Jobs Watch, Glassdoor, Indeed, Reed, Hays, Ravio, and Adzuna to find out what UK developers actually get paid — not what job ads say they'll get paid.
In this video I break down the real median UK software engineer salary from HMRC payroll data, why advertised salaries run 20-30% higher than actual pay, junior to staff-level salary ranges, what you actually take home after tax on each bracket, London vs remote vs working from abroad, contractor day rates and what IR35 means for your take-home, and whether the UK software engineering job market is actually growing or shrinking in 2026.
💰 Free UK SWE Salary Data Pack: https://stan.store/wandrdev
00:00 Intro
02:10 Official Median Dev Salary
2:15 Two salary clusters — actual vs advertised
03:30 Salary Trends
04:17 Job Market Health
05:47 Experience Based Pay
07:26 Take Home Pay
08:13 Contracting
11:26 Is it Still Worth Becoming a SWE in the UK?
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