Thanks for the nice words and the comment Maarten! I often feel the junior role is just a good excuse to pay less, and I really respect the companies who think differently, more evaluating a growth in the person. I also see the other way around when experienced people really out of luck start applying to junior roles although they’re falling into the more experienced “category” already, so that’s why I think overall the separation is really hard based on experience-level and just naming the position jr. or not, so I’ve eliminated in my research.

I admit the ranges are quite large often and as you said depending on the size, but often the market. For instance during the research I’ve realized for crypto-related companies almost there is no ceiling in terms of salaries, though then as a designer you might need to deal with the fact that they can go out of business really quickly too.

I think bigger companies are overpaying only in the US and less in Europe, but that puts certainly a bigger pressure on agencies too. I think remote working and more specialized knowledge could be a way out from this in the future.