Scrum master vs project manager salary
Are you thinking of becoming a Scrum Master? Interested in how they earn compared to a project manager? This article will cover this and look at the latest earnings figures. So you can decide, if salary is a factor for you. Let’s look at the numbers.
Scrum master salary
There is a pretty wide variance in scrum master salaries. Depending on industry, region, and so on. You might find different numbers from different data sources, also.
I took a look at a few different websites. To get a feel for the range and average for Scrum Master salaries.
So first let’s look at PayScale. According to them, the average salary in 2021 for a Scrum Master in the US is $92,917. Not a bad figure.
You will find higher numbers at talent.com, however. They have the average Scrum Master salary at $112,125 a year. Which is not bad at all. Scrum Masters according to builtin.com are earning on average $103,341.
But it’s not just about the average. You need to consider the range too. The average might be high but if there is a huge range, you are going to be starting way down at the bottom and it might take a while to work your way up to teh top.
PayScale has the salary ranging from $70K (for a starter with 1 year experience), up to $115K (if you have 20+ years years experience). Similarly, Talent.com has figures going from $95K (at the bottom of the scale) to a higher figure of $146K per year.
Should I become a scrum master?
Well that’s a different question! I actually think overall, Scrum Master is a good job. So have a read of that article and see if it helps you make a decision.
Project manager salary
Like Scrum Master, you’ll find a range of different numbers for project manager salary. On the bottom end, Indeed is reporting the average pay as $73,700. Which is not bad in general but not great for an IT job. And definitely lower than any Scrum Master figure you’ll see.
On the upper end, BuiltIn reports the number as a much higher $93,053. Which is much better. But if you think about it, almost exactly the same as the lowest reported average for Scrum master ($92,917, reported by PayScale).
Then in the middle, PayScale will show an average of $88,500. That’s certainly better than $73,700, but still not great. And less than most Scrum Master salaries.
Like Scrum Master, you will also find pretty big ranges within those websites. Due to experience, industry, and so on. The lowest figure I found was $71,140 and the highest was $128K, on PayScale.
That’s quite high but still not as high as the highest Scrum Master salary, quoted at $146K from Talent.com.
Scrum master vs project manager salary
You can see that there is quite a difference in terms of Scrum Master vs Project Manager salary. You might be surprised to find that Scrum Master is quite a bit higher than Project Manager. Both in terms of the range and the average.
You probably wouldn’t have seen that ten years ago. But times change. Agile and Scrum in particular are much more popular. Project Managers are dime a dozen. And seen as old-fashioned in a lot of IT firms.
This makes another compelling reason to consider becoming a Scrum Master (I believe Scrum Master is a good job, although hard). Or to look into getting Scrum Master certified.
Do you have any thoughts or experiences on this matter? Let me know in the comments! I will read and reply to every one.
