How much do UX professionals make? We partnered with the salary transparency platform Levels.fyi to create and analyze a robust dataset featuring the salaries of nearly 20,000 global UX professionals (Researchers, Designers, and Research Operations) from 2023 to 2025 to answer that question.
The report below explores the median salaries for UX Research, ReOps, and Design professionals around the world by years of experience, seniority, and company size. Remember these are not hard and fast salary recommendations—consider this another benchmark or data point to use alongside other sources to evaluate the salaries you set (as a hiring manager) and advocate for (as a UX specialist) based on job title, experience, seniority, and location.
Click the arrows below to unfurl the report and dive deeper into the data.
While salary is so dependent on geography, experience, and title, it’s important to zoom out and see the entire UX career landscape around the world—especially as many researchers work at companies with global teams, opportunities, and of course, budgets.
Our State of User Research 2025 found that about a third (34 percent) of respondents felt positively about the path for career growth and development at their current organization. And only 16 percent felt positive about the available job opportunities and career growth in the field more broadly.
What might global salary data tell us about why people are concerned about the future?
Our sample is relatively evenly distributed across years of experience: 25 percent have up to 3 years of experience, 27 percent have 4-6 years, 22 percent have 7-9, and 27 percent have 10+ years.
However, when we look at job titles, things are a lot less evenly distributed: 90 percent of our data comes from individual contributors, 6 percent comes from managers/team leads, 2 percent come from directors and senior directors, and 1 percent each come from freelancers and VP/senior VPs.
When looking at the two variables together, we see that ICs are highly represented, even among those with the most years of experience. While there is growth in management and above as you go up in years of experience, it is limited to about a third of the sample in the segment with the highest amount of experience (15+ years). Additionally, the sample size sharply declines after 7 to 9 years of experience.
Now it could be that individual contributors—as well as folks in their early careers—are more likely to share their salary data than anyone else. However, it might also indicate a lack of growth opportunities for most UX-ers. Our State of User Research 2025 report found that limited opportunities to progress professionally—whether in terms of improving craft or job career—was the third most common frustration shared among respondents.
As one respondent put it:
“[There’s] limited growth opportunity, [you] hit a ceiling after lead/staff level.”
When looking at median global salaries across the groups, it seems that differences in pay between ICs and leaders doesn’t become substantial until hitting the director level.
When looking at the difference in global median salary between Senior ICs and Team Leads/Managers, the gap can be negligible but maxes out around $26K.
However, looking at U.S. data, the difference in management vs. IC, predictably, compounds once you level up to the Director/Senior Director-level, where the median salary hits $216,000. That’s a good amount more money to be earned if you stay on the management track, remain a competitive candidate, and eventually secure one of these positions. Just remember: that job title only accounted for about ~4 percent of our sample, meaning opportunities to rise up that high may be very limited.
U.S. median salaries can be between 45 and 160 percent higher than elsewhere in the world.
Now this isn’t to say U.S. employees are overpaid as full-time employees—these numbers are market-rate compensation to employ someone in the U.S.
Across our reports this year, we’ve heard qualitative evidence from some respondents who have witnessed their business respond to these higher U.S. salaries by moving more research work abroad or hiring contractors without benefits.
For example, as noted by a participant in our Budget Report speaking about their company’s budget:
“A lot of UXR has been cut and those who leave are not backfilled. Instead, vendors and contractor workers are hired but they aren’t given proper tooling or background and the research suffers. It’s hard to justify a FTE because they are so expensive with benefits, etc. So we hire more and more contract people and overseas vendors.”
From a participant from our State of User Research:
“Democratization, layoffs/offshoring, budget cuts all threaten UXR as a practice in a way that’s left me telling aspiring researchers or career changers to think carefully about entering the field at this time.”
“It’s frustrating to see so many contract roles that don’t provide the benefits we need or deserve,” wrote another.
Many UX professionals have taken to freelance UX research—either as a full-time business, a part-time endeavor, or the occasional side-hustle—given a contracted job market and many in full-time roles reporting they’re being given intensified workloads, reduced autonomy, and middle management strain.
We see a wide range of possibilities for those making the pivot: there’s a risk of attracting no clients at first or making less than a full-time position as you build up your portfolio, but there’s also the chance that you can command a higher salary. In our combined sample with Levels.fyi, the range of annual income ranged from $0 to $364,000. The global median annual earnings for UX freelancers (n=293) is $90,000. To put that into perspective, it is on par with the global median starting salary for UX specialists around the world (n=4,025).
Generally, the more years of experience you have, the higher you earn annually as a freelancer.
UXers tended to make more as freelancers in the U.S., with a median of $125,000 (n=166). Elsewhere (n=127), the median is much lower: $39,000.
You can click through the chart below to see how freelance salaries vary by location:
Now that we’ve gone over what our dataset shows from a global perspective, it’s time to zoom in and see how experience and title affect salaries in your region.
Most of our data comes from the U.S., so the next section will be a bit more robust than for other countries and regions due to limitations in sample sizes. While the salary ranges will be higher than in other countries, many of the patterns remain the same. If you’re looking for specific comparisons in data for a specific country not listed below, download our User Interviews salary report dataset or visit Levels.fyi to dive deeper into the available data.
Our data includes salaries from 11,450 UX specialists in the U.S.—more than half of our total sample. First, let’s take a high-level look at the U.S. landscape by title and geography:
Design and Research titles are essentially paid the same across seniorities. However, Research Ops roles appear to pay less than these two titles. While this may be a real market difference—especially since ReOps is a relatively new discipline—we also can’t rule out that the difference is affected by the (much, much smaller) sample size (n=60). These results may also be skewed by factors like geography or company size of the folks who responded to the survey.
And speaking of geography (as any U.S. resident can tell ya) salaries can vary widely throughout the U.S. Predictably, tech-heavy states with high costs of living like California, Washington, and New York form a high-compensation tier. Important to keep in mind: Some states have smaller sample sizes than others. For states with fewer than 100 respondents, the pay might actually be more similar and we’re just seeing statistical noise. Some states are not listed due to low sample sizes.
Our data includes salaries from 2,062 UX Researchers in the U.S. With this large dataset, we can dive into more granular, comprehensive data—especially for Researchers.
Looking at the distribution of salaries from 2023-2025, we can see that two thirds (67 percent) of all researchers make more than $100K in the U.S.
While it appears that salaries are growing year over year, this may be attributed to sampling differences, as sample sizes are notably smaller for 2025 as compared to 2023 and 2024.
Regardless of job title, we see that—as expected—more years of experience correlates to higher pay.
Additionally, our data shows that researchers generally gain higher salaries the bigger the company you work for. (While Director-level numbers are less reliable due to small samples, the overall pattern is solid!)
Since Levels.fyi does not collect Research Operations data, we calculated geometric mean for salaries using our 2023-2025 State of User Research data (n=38). On the whole, annual salaries appear lower for Research Operation professionals than they do Researchers—both when looking in terms of years of experience and job title. However, due to differences in sample sizes, this cannot be said definitively. Also of note: our data showed higher annual salaries than Glassdoor estimates.
Finally, note that in the charts citing User Interviews data below, ReOps Specialist salaries are filtered by years of research experience—which may or not be similar to years of experience in an ops-specific role.
Our data includes salaries from 2,062 UX & Product Designers in the U.S.
Again, we see that median salaries for this group advance both when looking at titles and years of experience.
When comparing Designer and UXR salaries, there aren’t any definitive differences. UXRs appear to have a slightly higher entry-level rate, however this is most likely noise due to differences in sample size. Mid-career seems to be practically similar, with differences that could be attributed to sample size but also might signal real differences. However, the gap between the most experienced Design and UXRs is probably big enough to be real (but still take it with a grain of salt given the smaller UXR sample size.)
The data below comes from 191 UX/User Researchers in Canada.
In our 2023 - 2025 dataset, the median annual salary for a Researcher was $121,000 CAD ($87,000 USD) based on January 2026 conversion rates.
Here is UXR salary data from Canada, broken down by years of experience, as well as seniority/level:
The data below comes from 214 UX specialists in the U.K. (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
In our 2023 - 2025 dataset, the median annual salary for a UX specialist was £66,000 ($89,000) based on January 2026 conversion rates.
Note: Lower salaries for the most tenured and senior segments could be a product of lower sample sizes.
Our sample of UX and Product Designers from the U.K. (n=572) found that the median salary was £73,000 ($98,000).
We collected data from 2,609 UX specialists from the rest of Europe—1,656 of whom were located within the Euro area (Eurozone), while the other 953 were based in countries that use their own currencies. When possible, we divided our European data into Eurozone and non-Eurozone groups.
You can now recruit participants from 20+ countries in Europe with User Interviews!
Learn moreOn the whole, UX salaries appear higher within the Eurozone. But typical salaries range widely between countries in both groups, so neither segment should be assumed to be homogenous.
The data below comes from 493 UX Researchers from Europe—324 from within the Eurozone and 169 from countries that use their own currencies.
The data below comes from 2,099 UX/Product Designers in Europe—1,320 from within the eurozone and 779 from countries that use their own currencies.
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in Germany (n=283) between 2023 and 2025 was the equivalent of $68,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists, the median salary was $89,000 USD.
In unserem Datensatz betrug das mittlere Jahresgehalt für einen UX-Spezialisten mit Berufserfahrung auf Junior- bis mittlerem Niveau in Deutschland (n=283) zwischen 2023 und 2025 umgerechnet 59.000 US-Dollar (~5.000 € pro Monat). Für Spezialisten auf Senior- bzw. Managementebene lag das mittlere Gehalt bei 77.000 € (~6.500 € pro Monat).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in Poland between 2023 and 2025 (n=92) was the equivalent of $37,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists (n=74), the median salary was the equivalent of $58,000 USD.
W naszym zbiorze danych, mediana rocznego wynagrodzenia dla specjalisty UX na poziomie juniorskim lub średniozaawansowanym w Polsce w latach 2023-2025 (n=92) wynosiła równowartość 134.000 złotych polskich (~11.200 złotych miesięcznie). Dla specjalistów na poziomie seniorskim/menedżerskim (n=74) mediana wynagrodzenia wynosiła równowartość 208.000 złotych polskich (~17.300 złotych miesięcznie).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in France between 2023 and 2025 (n=66) was the equivalent of $58,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists (n=52), the median salary was the equivalent of $81,000 USD.
Dans notre ensemble de données, le salaire annuel médian d'un spécialiste UX junior à intermédiaire en France entre 2023 et 2025 (n=66) s'élevait à 49.000 euros (~4.100 euros par mois). Pour les spécialistes de niveau senior/manager (n=52), le salaire médian était de 69.000 euros (~5.800 euros par mois).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in the Netherlands between 2023 and 2025 (n=87) was the equivalent of $63,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists (n=151), the median salary was the equivalent of $99,000 USD.
In onze dataset bedroeg het mediane jaarsalaris voor een junior tot mid-level UX-specialist in Nederland tussen 2023 en 2025 (n=87) omgerekend €54.000 (~€4.500 per maand). Voor senior/manager-niveau specialisten (n=151) bedroeg het mediane salaris omgerekend €84.000 (~€7.000 per maand).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in Spain between 2023 and 2025 (n=103) was the equivalent of $46,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists, the median salary was the equivalent of $65,000 USD.
Según nuestros datos, el salario anual medio para un especialista en UX de nivel junior a intermedio en España entre 2023 y 2025 (n=103) fue de 39.000 euros (~3.300 euros al mes). Para los especialistas de nivel sénior o gerencial, el salario medio fue de 56.000 euros (~4.700 euros al mes).
The data comes from 41 UX Researchers from Australia and New Zealand.
In our 2023 - 2025 dataset, the median annual salary for a UX Researcher in Australia/New Zealand was $151,000 NZD/$216,000 AUD ($91,000 USD).
Due to the relatively low sample size for researchers in Australia/NZ, we will calculate segments using geometric mean.
The data comes from 1,230 UX/Product Designers in Australia and New Zealand.
In our 2023 - 2025 dataset, the median annual salary for a UX/Product Designer in Australia/New Zealand was around $156,000 NZD/$223,000 AUD ($94,000 USD).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a junior to mid-level UX specialist in Brazil between 2023 and 2025 (n=83) was the equivalent of $18,000 USD. For senior/manager-level specialists (n=97), the median salary was the equivalent of $31,000 USD.
Em nosso conjunto de dados, o salário anual mediano para um especialista em UX de nível júnior a pleno no Brasil, entre 2023 e 2025 (n=83), foi o equivalente a 97.000 reais (~8.100 reais por mês). Para especialistas de nível sênior/gerencial (n=97), o salário mediano foi o equivalente a 167.000 reais (~13.900 reais por mês).
In our dataset, the median annual salary for a UX specialist in India between 2023 and 2025 (n=1520) was the equivalent of $24,000 USD.
हमारे डेटासेट (n=1520) में, 2023 और 2025 के बीच भारत में एक UX स्पेशलिस्ट की औसत सालाना सैलरी ~2,133,000 रुपये (~178,700 रुपये प्रति माह) थी।
The 37 UX specialists in our 2023 - 2025 sample reported a median annual salary of $32,000 USD, or R519,000 (ZAR)—that equates to R43,250 per month.
We hope exploring median salaries in these different segments has been helpful to benchmark your salary, understand the global state of UX salaries, and see a bright (financial) future for your career.
Still have questions? You can download the User Interviews-provided data featuring nearly 3,000 salary records collected between 2022 and 2025. Dive into this data and see how filters like industry, education level, and how folks first acquired their research skills can affect salary. You also can explore in-depth data on companies, salaries, jobs, and more at Levels.fyi.
This report includes 1,906 responses from the 2023 to 2025 editions of our annual State of User Research report and 17,736 responses from 2023 to 2025 data from Levels.fyi. The report features data from those with job titles equivalent to UX/User Researcher, UX/Product Designer, or User Experience (UX) more broadly. In this report, this group is referred to collectively as “UX specialists.”
User Interviews and Levels.fyi collaborated on a standardized dataset. The User Interviews team sent the State of User Research data from 2023, 2024, and 2025 cleaned of PII to Levels. (Note: This dataset is public and is available for download).
User Interviews salary data was collected from respondents in their country’s currency. They were converted to USD in November 2025 to match the Levels.fyi data. In January 2026, the aggregated salaries were then converted back to each country’s currency for the purpose of regional-level reporting. In most cases, salaries were rounded to the nearest 1,000 to offset these variances.
The Levels.fyi team then used Claude to standardize the dataset, providing samples of outputs with the User Interviews team for oversight. Once the dataset was finalized, the Levels.fyi team performed data analysis in Excel, providing tables to the User Interviews team with transparency of the makeup of the datasets (i.e. how much data was provided by Levels.fyi and User Interviews) for quality assurance.
The User Interviews team then created data visualizations and wrote, edited, designed, and published the report.
This data focuses on people who have self-identified doing or supporting User, UX, product, design, or HCI research for at least 10 percent of the time as part of their job. We made an effort to exclude “repeat” participants—people who took the survey at least twice between 2023 and 2025. 57 participants were identified and in these cases only their more recent salary (2025) was used in our analysis.
Levels uses specific job titles (e.g., “Senior Product Designer”) from each company while filing each data point under a “job family” umbrella (e.g. “Product Designer”). To map titles, any data containing “ux researcher,” “user researcher,” “research,” or “usability” was mapped to “UX/User Research.” Titles containing “product designer,” ux designer,” “interaction designer,” “ui designer,” “visual designer,” or product design” mapped to “UX Design/Product Design.” All other remaining titles mapped to “Other.”
81 percent of Levels.fyi data mapped to UX Design/Product Design and 9 percent mapped to UX/User Research. In our analysis, we focused on the combined dataset of 3,760 User Researchers—supplementing with the larger dataset when it made sense.
Levels.fyi uses detailed role descriptions (e.g. “Head of Research”) while User Interviews uses standardized role levels (e.g. “Manager/team lead,” “VP/Senior VP”) To map roles, any data containing “CEO,” “CTO,” “CFO,” “‘Chief X Officer’ patterns,” “President (without ‘Vice’), “Founder” was mapped to “Level/Founder.” “VP,” “Vice President,” “SVP,” and “EVP” titles were mapped to “VP/Senior VP.” “Director,” “Senior Director” and “‘Head of’ titles” were mapped to “Director/Senior Director.” “Manager and “Team Lead” (but not “Design Lead” or “Tech Lead”—which were mapped to IC titles) were mapped to “Manager/team lead.” Everything else, including high-level ICs (e.g. Staff, Principal, IC8, etc.) were mapped as “Individual Contributors.”
User Interviews 2024/2025 data distinguishes between “IC (junior to mid-level)” and “IC (senior to staff/principal),” but their 2023 data and all Levels.fyi data had no such distinction. Following the methodology in the 2024 Salary Report, we applied a consistent rule:
In traditional structures, Managers are typically at a higher level (and pay grade) than individual contributors. But many companies now offer two tracks—one for management and one for individual contributors. In this structure, Senior/Principal individual contributors often have similar amounts of experience or tenure as those at the Manager level.
Our 2024 analysis suggested that, within the field of User Experience, individual contributors' tracks offered similar (if not higher) compensation than managerial roles. For sample size purposes, we often combined Senior IC and Manager data for analysis when it made sense. Additionally, when analyzing both title and years of experience, we collapsed these back into a single “Individual Contributor” category to avoid conflating years of experience with role level. However, note that this does create a relationship between experience and seniority classification that may not reflect actual job titles in all cases.
Additionally, for company sizes we standardized Level.fyi ranges (e.g. 251-1K) to User Interviews format (e.g. 500-999). We used AI-assisted classification for ~1,000 companies without size data.
For clarity, here are the definitions of key terms used throughout the report:
People whose titles include “UX/User Researcher,” “User Experience (UX),” or similar terms.
People whose titles include Research Operations or similar terms.
People whose titles include UX or Product Designer
Umbrella terms for all people represented in our dataset.
Individual contributors, or professionals who aren’t directly responsible for managing or directing other employees. See methodology for more information on how this was classified in our dataset.
A statistical measure that represents the middle value of a dataset. We’ve used the median when our sample size is above 25.
A value representing the central tendency of a dataset, calculated by multiplying the numbers together and taking the root. We’ve used the geo mean when our sample size is below 25.
The sample size, or number of responses for a particular segment.
Annual compensation, including bonuses but excluding additional benefits like equity. Unless otherwise stated, all salaries are given in USD.
Want more insights? Read the full State of User Research 2025 Report.
Read the report
Schedule your demo and see us in action today.
