IT Salary in Austria: What Developers Really Earn

IT Salary in Austria: What Developers Really Earn IT salary in Austria: €58,300 average per kununu, Junior to Lead ranges, IT collective agreement 2026, Vienna vs Graz and Linz, gross vs net, freelance rates. Topics: Work, Salary & Taxes, Career & Education.

IT salary in Austria stays among the highest on the local labour market. According to the employer-review platform kununu, a software developer earns €58,300 gross per year on average. That is clearly above the national average salary. Yet job ads rarely explain why offers range anywhere between €40,000 and €90,000. This guide walks through the real ranges by level — Junior, Middle, Senior and Lead — the minimums of the IT-KV 2026 (the IT-sector collective agreement), the gap between Vienna, Graz and Linz, the switch from gross to net, and an honest comparison of employment versus freelancing. Every figure comes with a date and a source, so you can use them in salary negotiations.

How much IT specialists earn in Austria on average

The short answer: the median developer in Austria earns roughly €58,000–60,000 gross per year. On kununu, the largest Austrian employer-review platform, the average salary of a Softwareentwickler:in is €58,300, based on 7,374 real employee reports from 2026. The Software Engineer role scores even higher: €60,700, with a spread from €42,200 to €89,800.

Put that into context. The average gross salary across all professions in Austria sits near €50,100 per year. According to Statistik Austria, the median annual income of an employee in 2024 was €38,043, and for people who worked full-time all year — €55,678. IT consistently occupies the top third of the distribution.

For context, it helps to look at other professions we have covered. We already published breakdowns for teachers, nurses and doctors: across all of them, IT pays clearly more than the public sector. Our general article on the average salary in Austria shows how the median shifts between federal states. The AMS JobBarometer ranks programming among the most in-demand professions: on the devjobs.at platform in November 2026, around 3,530 IT vacancies were open.

The market is also wider than pure development. On the same platform the biggest block is support and administration: Support Engineer (204 vacancies), Software Developer (180), IT Administrator (175), System Administrator (153). That means the label “IT” covers people with very different training levels — and very different incomes. Hence the huge spread in the statistics: next to a senior on €90,000 works a tester on €40,000, and both formally count as IT specialists. This is why the rest of this article splits the market into levels and tracks.

IT-KV 2026: minimum salaries by group ST1, ST2 and LT

Most developers at Austrian IT companies work under the IT-KV — the collective agreement for services in automatic data processing and information technology. It is negotiated every year by the UBIT association of the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKÖ) and the union GPA. The current version applies from 1 January 2026 and obliges employers to pay the table minimum 14 times a year on a 38.5-hour week.

The agreement sorts employees into job families: AT (general tasks), ST1 and ST2 (specialised IT tasks) and LT (management). A developer with a degree almost always lands in ST1 or ST2. The 2026 minimums per the official WKÖ table:

Family	Entry level	Regelstufe (standard)	Erfahrungsstufe (experienced)
ST1	€3,267	€3,954	€4,476
ST2	€4,061	€4,611	€5,444
LT	€5,301	€6,059	€6,781

Multiply by 14 payments and you get the annual floor: €45,738 for ST1 at entry, €55,356 at the standard level and €94,934 for an experienced LT manager. Beginners without relevant experience may be paid a reduced €3,104 in ST1, and during the first year the amount can sit 5% below entry — but never longer than 12 months. Under the GPA–WKÖ agreement, minimums rose by 2.7–3.1% in 2026 depending on the family, and companies must lift their actual payroll by 2.75% no later than the July payout.

Important caveat: not all of IT runs on this agreement. Developers in banks, industry and insurance often fall under the KV gewerbliche Wirtschaft (the collective agreement for commerce and industry), where minimums are lower: usage group III starts at €2,528 and group IV at €3,146 per month, per the WKÖ table valid for 2026. The IT-KV is the floor of the market, not its ceiling.

There is a practical way to check yourself: open your Dienstzettel (payslip) and find the group code — AT, ST1, ST2 or LT. If the code is missing while your employer is an IT company, ask for a written justification of the applicable KV. According to the career portal informatikjobs.at, many developers lose money to a wrong Einstufung (level classification): the gap between ST1 and ST2 at entry is almost €800 per month, roughly €11,000 a year once you count all 14 payments.

The collective agreement only guarantees the lower bound: it fixes your level and the minimum, but everything above that figure is yours to negotiate. The correct ST1 or ST2 classification is a stronger bargaining argument than any percentage demand.

— from GPA union guidance on the new IT-KV 2026

Salaries by level: Junior, Middle, Senior and Lead

Real-world ranges run wider than the table minimums, so compare your number against two benchmarks at once: the agreement floor and the market level. According to vacancy-aggregator data for 2026, an entry software position averages €3,802 per month, with a typical band of €3,396–4,285 — already the ST1 standard level. Below are annual benchmarks built from the IT-KV and live devjobs.at listings.

Level	Annual gross (14 payments)	What it matches
Junior	€40,000–50,000	ST1 entry €45,738; reduced start €43,456
Middle	€50,000–62,000	ST1 standard level €55,356
Senior	€62,000–80,000	ST1 experienced €62,664; ST2 up to €76,216
Lead / Architect	€80,000–95,000+	LT up to €94,934

Live examples from devjobs.at in November 2026 confirm the logic: a Mid-Level Java developer in Vienna at €50,000–60,000, a Senior Software Engineer in Vienna from €57,000, a Senior Full-Stack engineer (.NET, Angular) in Styria from €70,000, and a Solution Architect (Dynamics 365) in Vienna from €80,000. Note the pattern: a senior in a regional office can out-earn a middle in Vienna. The jump from Middle to Senior is not only about money — flexible hours, hardware and bonuses usually arrive together with the title.

What the market pays by track: Backend, Frontend, DevOps and Data

Austria has no single official statistic by specialisation, but track-level ranges can be estimated from kununu data and the structure of devjobs.at vacancies in 2026. Benchmarks for Middle–Senior:

Track	Annual gross	Comment
Backend	€52,000–68,000	Java, C# and Python top the demand list
Frontend	€48,000–64,000	React and Angular appear most often in ads
DevOps / Cloud	€58,000–76,000	Kubernetes, Azure and AWS add a premium
Data / AI	€60,000–85,000	AI Engineer is one of the fastest-growing families

The demand picture on devjobs.at: 466 vacancies mentioning Python, 308 Java, 275 C#, 228 Kubernetes and 106 AI Engineer positions. DevOps and data roles traditionally pay more than pure development because they combine code with infrastructure and production responsibility. Frontend often starts slightly below backend — but the gap closes once you move into front-end architecture. A practical takeaway for negotiations: your value is measured by the intersection of technologies, not the job title. Python plus cloud or Java plus Kubernetes pushes the number up faster than a rename, and employers pay for that intersection.

Vienna versus Graz and Linz: where the IT salary is higher

Most IT vacancies are in Vienna: on devjobs.at in November 2026, 713 of the 3,530 national listings sat there. Linz offered 192 vacancies, Graz 160, and Salzburg and Innsbruck about 69 each. The capital pays on average 5–10% more than regional centres, driven by the headquarters of banks, telecoms and international corporations.

But comparing cities on gross alone is a mistake. Linz runs a strong industrial IT scene: KEBA, voestalpine and their contractors pay engineers solid figures without Viennese competition. Graz is automotive electronics and software: AVL and MAGNA actively hire embedded and test developers. Rent in Vienna is noticeably higher, so the net difference between the capital and the regions often almost disappears.

Regional offers can be generous too: a Senior Full-Stack role in Leibnitz (Styria) is listed from €70,000 — Viennese senior territory. If you consider remote or hybrid work, geography stops being the main rate factor altogether. Negotiating a high figure from Graz is easier than surviving it in Vienna with high rent.

The employer map hints at who pays top rates. Vienna concentrates banks (Erste, Raiffeisen), telecoms (A1, Magenta), energy companies and international consultancies — historically the owners of the upper end of the ranges. Linz and Graz are strong in industrial software and embedded development, where engineers with a technical degree are valued. Small agencies and startups pay less than corporations but compensate with options and flexibility — decide which matters more at your career stage.

From gross to net: what actually lands in your account

Every figure in this article is gross, and in Austria salaries are almost always quoted annually across 14 payments. What lands in your account — net — is roughly 66–72%, depending on the amount, tax class and family situation. The clearest illustration comes from the devjobs.at calculator using 2026 rates.

At €3,500 gross per month, an employee receives €2,460.83 net — total deductions are 28.52%. At €4,500 gross, €2,970.58 net remains. In annual terms: €49,000 gross turns into €35,024 net, and €60,000 into €41,102. The employer additionally pays about 29% in contributions, so a €70,000 offer costs the company roughly €90,000.

Run the net calculation before negotiations, not after signing. The gap between “€58,300 gross” and “€3,100 net per month” can shock anyone moving from a country with a flat tax rate. Families with children pay less thanks to tax credits — factor that into your relocation budget early.

Technically, the deductions split into two parts. First, roughly 18% goes to social insurance — pension, health and unemployment contributions; above a certain income ceiling this rate stops climbing. Then income tax — Lohnsteuer — is applied progressively: the higher the amount, the larger the share that goes to the state. In net calculators, enter your family status and tax credits: Familienbonus Plus (the family tax credit) can noticeably change the result. The same offer means different amounts on the card for a single developer and a father of two.

Bonuses, the 13th and 14th salaries and All-in contracts

Beyond the monthly salary, Austrian employees receive Sonderzahlungen — two extra payments a year. Urlaubszuschuss (vacation bonus, the “13th salary”) lands in June, Weihnachtsremuneration (Christmas payment, the “14th”) in November or December. Both are taxed at favourable rates: from €3,500 gross, you keep €2,765.60 and €2,728.40 — noticeably more than a regular month.

A common IT format is the All-in-Vertrag (all-inclusive contract): a fixed monthly amount that already covers 10–20 overtime hours per month. Check how many hours are baked into the contract and what the resulting hourly rate looks like. An offer of €65,000 all-in can lose to €60,000 with honest overtime tracking.

Then come the variable parts: annual bonus, profit sharing, startup options, a company car and laptop. For scale, our piece on the highest salaries in the country shows what top earners collect. In IT, the bonus often adds 5–15% of the annual figure and is fixed as a separate contract clause.

Employment or freelancing: what pays off for a developer

The benchmarking platform FRATCH puts the average day rate of a freelance software developer in Austria at €752, with a median of €760 — roughly €94 per hour. At 180–200 billable days a year, a self-employed developer’s turnover reaches €135,000–150,000. The figure looks triple a salaried one — but the comparison is unfair without deductions.

A freelancer pays SVS (self-employed social insurance) contributions on income, gets no paid vacation or sick leave, buys their own hardware and carries the risk of project gaps. The effective gap over employment shrinks to roughly +30–50% — the price of risk and freedom. On the plus side: autonomy, project choice and the option to combine work with the residence permit for the self-employed in Austria.

A practical rule: freelancing pays off after Senior level, once you have a client network and a specialisation. Juniors and mids are better off employed: the IT-KV guarantees a minimum, 14 payments and a career ladder inside the company. Many developers in Austria combine both: 30 hours employed plus one freelance project — but check the non-compete clause first.

How to check your classification and raise your salary

Step one: find the group code on your payslip (Dienstzettel) — ST1, ST2 or LT. The IT-KV obliges the employer, after 36 months of tenure, to check whether your tasks already match ST2 — a perfectly legal conversation opener. Moving from ST1 to ST2 carries a bonus of 75% of the minimum difference; the step to LT carries 50%.

Step two: Vordienstzeiten (crediting prior experience). Experience from the last 7 years (up to 5 in total) counts toward your level — but only if you submit your Dienstzeugnis (service certificates) within two months of joining. Miss the deadline and the top-up is lost for good. Within a family, levels still rise: entry → standard after at most 3 years, experienced after 4 more.

Step three: a market check. Compare your number with kununu ranges and live devjobs.at vacancies, run the net calculation and walk into the meeting with three figures: yours, the agreement’s and the market’s. The full job-search playbook lives in our guide to working in Austria. If the employer stays silent after the 2.75% July indexation — that is a conversation topic, not a reason to endure.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a junior developer earn in Austria?

The IT-KV 2026 minimum for ST1 at entry is €3,267 per month across 14 payments — €45,738 gross per year. Without relevant experience a reduced start of €3,104 is allowed for the first year. The market band for juniors runs roughly €3,396–4,285 per month.

Are IT salaries quoted gross or net?

In Austria, salary ranges are quoted gross per year, counting 14 payments. Net is around 66–72%: for example, €49,000 gross yields €35,024 net per the 2026 calculator. Always convert an offer to net before accepting.

Why does Vienna pay more than Graz and Linz?

Headquarters of banks, telecoms and international companies are concentrated in the capital — 713 IT vacancies there versus 192 in Linz and 160 in Graz. The Vienna premium is 5–10%, but high rent eats part of the difference.

What is an All-in-Vertrag and is it worth it?

It is a contract where the fixed monthly amount already includes a set number of overtime hours. It pays off when overtime is rare and the resulting hourly rate beats your regular one. If overtime is constant, honest time tracking almost always wins.

Conclusion: turning the numbers into an offer

IT salary in Austria in 2026 means €58,300 on average per kununu, minimums from €45,738 under the IT-KV for ST1 and a ceiling near €95,000 for managers. City gaps run at 5–10%, level gaps at double. Knowing three figures — the agreement’s, the market’s and the net — turns a vague “I want more” into a concrete conversation.

• Find your group code (ST1/ST2/LT) and check your level.
• Collect Dienstzeugnisse from the last 7 years — the deadline is 2 months.
• Benchmark your range against kununu and live devjobs.at ads.
• Convert the offer to net and audit the hours in any All-in deal.
• Pick the format: employment, hybrid or freelancing after Senior.

The next step is yours: if you are still planning the move, start with our guide to working in Austria, then subscribe to the newsletter — we cover Austrian salaries, taxes and contracts every week.