Last Updated:June 25, 2025, 17:27 IST
Bengaluru offers the world’s cheapest software engineering talent, with an average salary of $12,000, about a fourth of the global average of around $46,000 per year.
Emerging Asian tech hubs such as Seoul ($51,000), Singapore ($47,000), and Beijing ($46,000) offer much higher average salaries.
Bengaluru is offering the world’s cheapest software engineering talent, according to a new global comparison published by The Times of India. The average annual salary of a software engineer in Bengaluru stands at just $12,000, a fraction of what tech professionals earn in major global hubs.
This amount is nearly one-tenth of what software engineers make in the Silicon Valley ($125,000), and about a fourth of the global average, which is around $46,000 per year. The comparison, based on the WeAreCity Report compiled by UnboxingBLR, paints a sharp picture of how cost-effective Indian tech talent remains on the world stage.
Global Cities Vs Bengaluru: The Salary Gap
In cities like Tel Aviv ($77,000), Sydney ($78,000), Toronto ($75,000), London ($65,000), and Tokyo ($62,000), software engineers earn several times more than their Bengaluru counterparts. Even emerging Asian tech hubs such as Seoul ($51,000), Singapore ($47,000), and Beijing ($46,000) offer much higher average salaries.
Paris and Berlin, with average salaries of $48,000 and $56,000 respectively, also far exceed Bengaluru’s pay scale.
Despite the clear disparity in earnings, India, and Bengaluru in particular, continue to attract global companies looking to outsource or expand their tech operations. The low cost of skilled engineering talent, coupled with a large English-speaking workforce, continues to make Bengaluru a vital part of the global tech supply chain.
However, the global IT landscape is undergoing a shift. In the post-pandemic world, tech companies across the globe have resorted to cost-cutting measures, with widespread layoffs becoming more common. These layoffs are largely concentrated in high-cost economies such as the United States, but India has not been entirely immune to the trend.
On June 18, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy issued a memo to the company’s 1.5 million employees, stating that as the company integrates artificial intelligence across departments, it expects to eventually reduce its corporate workforce. He highlighted that generative AI would fundamentally change how work is done and suggested that the company would need fewer people for some existing roles, while increasing hiring in others that are AI-related.
While Amazon has not yet officially announced a new round of layoffs, Jassy’s message was a clear signal that more job cuts are on the horizon, especially targeting high-paying corporate roles that typically include annual bonuses and stock options.
Microsoft is also preparing for workforce reductions. A Bloomberg report dated June 19 stated that the company is planning to cut jobs in its sales division. Meanwhile, Google has taken a slightly different route. On June 10, it offered voluntary buyouts to employees across multiple teams, including Communications, Marketing, Research, Core, and Knowledge & Information departments.
Together, these developments point to a growing shift in the tech employment market — where cost-efficiency and AI adoption are changing hiring patterns. And in this reshaped global landscape, Bengaluru’s status as a low-cost tech hub may prove to be both its strength and its challenge.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to markets, economy and companies. Having a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris has been previously asso…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to markets, economy and companies. Having a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris has been previously asso… Read More
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