How much should product designers be paid? This report has the data

Office workers in Jakarta / Photo credit: Shutterstock

An upcoming report has detailed how much product designers across five levels of seniority in five Southeast Asian countries were paid in 2024.

Design Pay Asia‘s report, which evaluates product design compensation trends last year, found that mid-level individual contributors (ICs) formed the largest segment with widest compensation variances. There was also a notable jump in compensation from the senior IC to manager roles.

Meanwhile, there were also outliers – some junior ICs earned more than senior IC medians.

Founded by Jonathan Yap in 2020, Design Pay Asia is a community-driven volunteer group that aims to share fair and transparent data on compensation for product designers in Southeast Asia.

The 2024 report also found that trends in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand were varied.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, mid-level ICs formed the largest segment at 44.73%, with the widest pay variance ranging from 4 million rupiah to 768 million rupiah (around US$245 to US$47,053).

Singapore

The report noted an outlier among senior IC roles, whose pay typically ranges from S$44,000 to S$434,000 (around US$32,352 to US$319,117), with a median of S$103,000 (around US$75,735).

Meanwhile, compensation for directors ranges from S$148,000 to S$180,000 (around US$109,016 to US$132,587).

Malaysia

Across the border from Singapore, Malaysia has compensation levels for the director role within up to four times the range.

Vietnam

Thailand