The average gross monthly salary in artificial intelligence jobs in Israel is currently NIS 36,500 and NIS 38,500 in Tel Aviv. Salaries range from NIS 26,000 monthly for an algorithm developer with up to two years experience, to NIS 53,000 monthly for a researcher who is not a manager, in the private sector, with six years experience or more.
The figures emerge from a survey by the MDLI Machine and Deep Learning Israel community on Facebook designed to map trends among workers in data science and machine learning. The results of the survey, in which 997 people in these disciplines took part, were analyzed and processed by data scientist Omri Goldstein. The survey found that the salary gap between men and women in these professions was 8% in favor of the men.
The current survey indicates a steep rise in pay in comparison with the two previous surveys, carried out two years ago and three years ago, in which the average monthly salary was NIS 31,000 and NIS 29,000 respectively.
The MDLI community is the largest and most active in Israel in AI, deep learning and machine learning. The community is growing and now numbers some 22,000 members from all over Israel - experts and beginners, in academic institutions, industry, and the IDF. It was founded in 2016 by Uri Eliabayev, an AI consultant, out of a desire to create a high-quality professional environment for the sharing of information and ideas, a platform for presenting new subjects, and a means of consulting and forming collaborations for those working in this field in Israel.
The survey further indicates wide pay gaps between those working for one of the tech giants, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple, and the rest of the market. According to the survey, the average salary in these fields in the giant companies was NIS 55,700. The organizers of the survey say that the average salary in these companies may well be even higher, because the highest number of respondents reporting that they earned over NIS 70,000 monthly came from this group, but it is not known how much over NIS 70,000 they earn. The median salary for employees of these companies was NIS 60,000 monthly. In the remaining companies, the average salary was NIS 39,000.
"Despite the difficult year that the economy has gone through, we see that this year too the pay of all those working in data rose substantially, and we estimate that this trend will continued in the coming years as well," Eliabayev said.
"The barriers to entry in these fields are very high," Eliabayev added. "Most of the respondents to the survey have second degrees or higher, which means that the rate at which additional workers are trained and enter the industry is slow in comparison with other technology sectors, which is why the competition for talent in this sector is so fierce."
Computer science and electronic engineering graduates earn the most in this field, with an average monthly salary of NIS 39,200, while economics graduates earn the least, at NIS 26,100 monthly on average.
The survey also found geographical variations. The highest average salary, NIS 38,500, was paid in Tel Aviv. Haifa was next, with NIS 35,200, followed by the central region (including the Sharon), at NIS 35,100, the south, at NIS 31,800, the northern region, at NIS 28,100, with Jerusalem bringing up the rear, at NIS 26,100>
The survey organizers say that one possible reason for the gap between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is that in Jerusalem there is a higher proportion of analysts (12% versus 4% for the sample as a whole), and academic researchers (6% versus 1%), these roles being the lowest paid. In addition, the development centers of the large corporations that pay the highest salaries are mostly in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, and Haifa, and not in Jerusalem.
* The original version of this story mistakenly gave nartional average monthly salary as NIS 38,500 instead of NIS 36,500. NIS 38,500 is the average monthly salary in Tel Aviv.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 28, 2021
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