Survey of 106 Design Engineers Reveals €45,000 Pay Gap Tied to Job Title

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A new anonymous survey of 106 design engineers across Europe found a median total annual compensation of €115,000, with the middle 50% earning between €70,000 and €140,000. The research was conducted to fill a data gap, as existing salary aggregators primarily track mechanical and hardware engineers rather than the UI-focused, code-shipping role common at companies like Figma, Stripe, and Vercel. One of the starkest findings is that job title alone accounts for a €45,000 pay difference: those contracted as 'Design Engineer' earned a median €115,000, while those doing identical work under the title 'Frontend Engineer' earned just €70,000. Only 46% of respondents actually had 'Design Engineer' written in their contract, with the rest working under various other titles and being paid accordingly. The survey also found that compensation skews toward the engineering end of the skill spectrum, with more code-focused respondents earning roughly €25,000 more than their design-leaning peers.

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