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1 in 8 software engineers in the Netherlands lists PHP as a primary programming language. This makes it the seventh most-used language in the country. Here, we’ll look at the average salary for PHP developers at each stage of their careers and how they compare to Python and Java developers.
Average junior PHP developer salary
PHP developers in the Netherlands with two-to-four years’ experience can expect to earn an annual income of €34 696. This puts them 20.1% (€8 727) behind Java developers at this level and 15.5% (€6 360) behind their Python counterparts.
At the four-year mark, PHP devs get a hefty raise of 37.1% (€12 873) to a salary of €47 569, closing the gap with Java and Python developers, who earn 10% (€5 309) and 6.9% (€3 531) more respectively.
This significant pay rise can be explained by the fact that developers in the early stages of their careers are prone to switching jobs more frequently than senior developers. This provides them with not only the opportunity to learn in a variety of environments but also the chance to negotiate for larger salaries each time than they might receive through annual increases working at the same company for years.
PHP Developer Salaries by Experience
Average Salary by Years Experience, showing 25th and 75th percentiles
| Years of Experience | 25th Percentile | Average | 75th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-4 | €30,300 | €34,696 | €43,500 |
| 4-6 | €36,225 | €47,569 | €57,250 |
| 6-10 | €34,980 | €52,514 | €67,500 |
| 10-15 | €42,000 | €63,416 | €78,926 |
Average senior PHP developer salary
Once they have at least six years of experience, Netherlands-based PHP developers can expect to earn €52 514, up 10.4% (€4 945) from their previous earnings. At this level of experience, Java developers earn 13.5% (€8 225) and Python devs 10.3% (€6 057) more.
Highly experienced PHP devs – those with 10-15 years experience – see a salary jump of 20.8% (€10 902) to €63 416. That’s 14.4% less (€10 640) than similarly experienced developers working in Java, and 7.1% (€4 841) less than those working in Python.
Salary growth slows somewhat for senior PHP developers, partly because they have a tendency towards longer tenures at companies and also because those companies are reluctant to grant large increases to already high salaries.
Keep in mind
The data in this article is taken from StackOverflow’s 2022 Developer Survey’s open data. In this article, ‘salary’ refers to the gross annual salary (before tax) provided by 200 survey respondents from the Netherlands who identified as PHP developers.
We only included salary insights for experience levels with enough data points to ensure that the amounts represent PHP developers in the country. That’s why we excluded salaries for developers with fewer than two years and more than fifteen years of experience in this article.
We also ran an outlier analysis to identify data points skewing the distribution of salaries. These points were removed from the final dataset to ensure that the amounts are representative of PHP developers in the Netherlands. We’ve also included the 25th and 75th percentiles to give you further information about the distribution of salary data.
Average salaries are single data points and only one part of a bigger story. Many respondents may earn significantly more or significantly less than these averages. However, we hope to show underlying trends by mapping the average salaries for different experience levels.
These averages should not be used to estimate what your actual salary will or should be. Salaries depend on the company size, industry, individual, perks and nature of the work. These factors all influence the salary a company will offer to a prospective hire. In addition, most developers are “fluent” in several languages and work across multiple roles, which will also affect the final figures.
It’s also important to remember that every individual’s context is different. Salary is a personal conversation that should take place between employee and employer.
On OfferZen you can hire PHP developers and find PHP developer jobs.
Related resources
- 2022 Netherlands report: State of the Software Developer Nation
- How to Negotiate a Job Offer That's More Than Just the Money
- How to Negotiate when Hiring Developers
- Python Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
- JavaScript Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
- TypeScript Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
- React Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
- Software Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
- Angular Developer Salary Trends in the Netherlands
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- Top Companies Currently Hiring Developers in the Netherlands