Between payments in tokens, geographical differences and differences between professions, negotiation strategies, here's an in-depth analysis to better understand remuneration in Web3 and maximise your chances of being paid well... while limiting the associated risks.
Understanding the specific nature of remuneration in Web3 Before we talk numbers, The Big Whale offers you a chance to understand what makes this ecosystem so unique when it comes to remuneration.
👉 Many types of contract In Web3, four types of contract are commonly used, enabling projects to contract with a workforce that is both international while playing on the flexibility essential to their development.
Here are the 4 main ways of contracting:
Direct employment contract : You are hired directly by the company, with a fixed salary and benefits that may depend on the company's internal policy, the country of registration and sometimes even the sector of activity.
Contract via a specialist company (Remote.com, Deel, etc.) : In this case, you are not hired directly by the project that recruited you. For example, you are based in Singapore and the DeFi project that recruits you is based in the United Arab Emirates. You want to work under an employment contract in your own country (Singapore) because it reassures you that you know your rights locally. In this case, the DeFi project uses Remote.com, for example, which will be your legal employer in Singapore and will re-invoice your salary to the DeFi project that recruited you. This is the easiest way for a project to employ staff abroad.
Direct freelance : You work as a freelancer, negotiating your terms and conditions directly with the client. In this case, it is advisable to sign a service contract setting out the rules of the collaboration and the rights and obligations of both parties.
Freelance via a platform (Upwork, Malt, Fiverr, etc.) : These platforms make it easier to sign contracts but charge commission on your turnover. Commissions are generally between 5% and 20% of your sales on the platform. So it's easy to see why, after a few weeks or months of working together, many freelancers prefer to contract directly with the project, once a relationship of trust has been established.
👉 Payment methods in euros and/or crypto Crypto companies generally offer 4 types of payment to their employees/freelancers:
Fiat: the most traditional, a payment in a national currency: dollar, euro, yen, etc.
Stablecoins : generally, payment is made in USDT or USDC on the Ethereum network. This is the second most common payment method, along with fiat. This is because crypto projects most often raise funds in cryptos and their cash consists mainly of stablecoins.
Project native token : it is highly likely that the project that recruits you will offer to pay you all, but more often part, of your remuneration in project tokens (provided that the token is already available). We are talking here about spot payments. At the end of this article we will discuss the special case of token allocations on early projects when the token is not yet listed.
BTC or ETH : this practice is tending to decline with the democratisation of stablecoins, but some projects continue to offer this remuneration format.
👉 Risks and opportunities of paying in crypto Their value can explode... or collapse (excluding stablecoins). When it comes to your remuneration, you need to be very careful about the liquidity of the asset: could you sell several thousand euros worth of this token without difficulty or exorbitant fees?
In addition, you need to factor in fiat conversion fees if you want to pay yourself a remuneration in euros, for example. Taking a standard 1.5% fee on a CEX, a crypto to fiat transaction on a payment of €5,000 will cost you €75. Over 12 months, that works out at 900 euros, which is not insignificant.
👉Legal framework and taxation Some countries prohibit payment in crypto for wages or apply heavy taxation. Find out from a competent tax expert before accepting a salary or payment for your services in crypto.
What the figures say: how much can you expect? According to job board CryptoJobsList , the average annual salary in Web3 to date is $102,258. The site offers a collaborative salary comparator that gives you access to the salaries of your peers in exchange for your anonymous contribution. The database has been populated by more than 6,200 Web3 contributors and is updated daily.
Here are the current salary trends for the main types of job:
Source: CryptoJobsList Note that a reasonable level of confidence can be placed in this data as there is a 24-48 hour review process and 10.6% of submissions are rejected.
A surprising finding Developers are not the best paid! Lawyers and product specialists come out on top, thanks to the increased scarcity of their skills and the complexity of their expertise.
Very wide salary brackets There is a factor of 1 to 10 between the lowest and highest salaries for the same position. This seems to be explained by several factors:
Impact of market cycles : this benchmark has been carried out for several years and so some salary shares have been in a bull market, others in a bear market.
Differences between early-stage and established projects : young startups often offer lower salaries but compensate with token packages.
Geographical differences : the internationalisation of the workforce de facto creates significant differences between contributors with equal skills.
Seniority levels : the figures presented are not broken down by level of experience.
Pay inequalities in Web3 There is little recent but above all reliable data on the state of pay in Web3, nevertheless we have identified a few relevant sources to present you with as representative a picture as possible. And you'll see that the first finding is a bombshell!
Women earn on average 15% more than men in Web3!
Yes, you read that right. While they earn 16% less in Web2. This study was carried out on 504 people by VC fund Pantera Capital, which published the results on its website at the end of July 2024. This situation, which runs counter to the majority of other industries, can be explained by the fact that women tend to be more experienced and often occupy mid- to senior-level positions, with more than five years' experience in their current roles. In contrast, a higher proportion of men are in entry-level roles as they transition into the crypto industry.
Source: Pantera Research Lab Not surprisingly, North America is pulling salaries up! Gamified recruitment platform Calyptus has published a benchmark of pay by continent in its Web3 2024 Remuneration Report. (The data comes exclusively from their platform, which claims around 250 available job offers). North America offers higher salaries compared to Asia and Europe.
You can download the 2024 report here . These figures seem to be confirmed if we look in the job categories. For example, the web3.career site, which lists more than 57,000 job offers, highlights a salary study focusing on developers that confirms North America's top spot, where developer salaries are almost twice as high as in Europe.
The full report can be accessed here . For financial professions, the report published in 2024 by the Web3 Finance Club also confirms this American salary dominance (report conducted among more than 300 web3 financiers worldwide).
Extract from the report published by the Web3 Finance Club
The full report can be downloaded here . Christophe Lassuyt, CEO of Request Finance, gave us some additional insights:
"To find out how well you're being paid as a financier in web3, you need to start by looking at the figures. This report highlights the major trends, but the real message lies elsewhere: those who adopt web3 tools and strategies are no longer simply accountants or budget managers, they are transforming their function into a genuine profit driver. Stay tuned, develop your skills and be part of this transformation."
How do you know if your salary is competitive? Don't rely on just one source! To get a clear picture of your market value, it's important to cross-reference several data sources:
Use specialist platforms
Such as Glassdoor or Levels . On Glassdoor, in exchange for reviewing a previous employer or sharing your salary, you get access to extremely detailed data by employer and by job type.
Example of the search "Software Developer at Coinbase in the US" on the Glassdoor site:
Example of the search carried out on Levels with the criteria "Product Manager at Binance":
Browse job offers on the many Web3 recruitment sites
Here is a non-exhaustive list of serious sites to compare the salaries offered to profiles similar to yours: Web3 Jobs , Cryptocurrency Jobs , CryptoJobsList , Onchain jobs or cryptojobs .
Test the market
There's nothing more effective than sending out a few applications, even if you're doing well in your current job. Feedback from recruiters and the offers you receive are an excellent barometer of your current value.
Contact specialist Web3 headhunters
Recruiters are always (usually!) willing to answer your questions and they can clearly help you find your place.
Understand your own positioning
Years of experience, rarity of your profile, contribution to the ecosystem beyond your position (content creation, public figure, etc.) to define a discount or premium.We asked Thibault de Grandi, co-founder of recruitment website Onchain jobs, for his advice:
"In Web3, exchanging with your network is essential to better assess your salary and advance your career. Comparing your income and assignments with those of your peers not only allows you to negotiate more fairly, but also to better position yourself in relation to job offers in the sector and to know your value at your full potential by having an outside view."
By combining these approaches, you will have a precise idea of your competitiveness and therefore your salary!
Early token allocations: an opportunity or a risky bet? In early-stage web3 projects, it is common to receive part of your remuneration in tokens, sometimes even before they are listed or the project has raised funds. This is a way for the project to bring together its first contributors in the absence of substantial financial resources. A great opportunity... but also a risky gamble.
Understanding vesting and cliff
Token allocations are generally subject to a cliff (waiting period before any tokens can be received) followed by vesting (gradual release of tokens over a set period, usually monthly).
A concrete example
A project might offer $1,000 in fixed + $2,000 in unissued tokens. With a cliff of 24 months and a vesting of 12 months, this means you wait 3 years before getting your full allocation back.
Should you accept?
Before you say yes, ask yourself these questions:
How much do you believe in this project? Many web3 startups disappear before their tokens can be liquidated. What will be the state of the market? In 3 years' time, will we be in the middle of a bull run or a bear market? Do you have a crystal ball? Can you afford a low fixed salary? Working on a low salary in the hope of a big future gain can be excellent leverage... or a strategic mistake. Always balance your package
A good compromise might be a decent salary base + an allocation of tokens with potential, to avoid betting everything on an uncertain future.
Conclusion Beyond the figures and benchmarks, a few points to keep in mind by way of conclusion:
Sell your skills even more than elsewhere: web3 is a tight market, but you need to know how to position yourself and understand where your value lies.
Be active on the job market: stay informed and on the lookout for the right opportunities, while avoiding short leases if possible. Wanting to chain employers together to increase salary growth is rarely a winner in the long term.
Beware of the "gamble" in your crypto remuneration: don't bet everything on crypto remuneration, look for a balance in line with your own risk aversion and your existing financial base.
Use all the tools at your disposal!
In short, getting paid well in Web3 is not just a question of skills, but also of strategy and good information. Do your own research, compare and negotiate intelligently to get paid what your skills are worth!
