From the article : "Today, a good Java developer in the Ukraine earns $4,000 a month."

As I understand it, it's not what the dev costs to its employer but what he takes home.

And where did you read that I had the idea that they were not good enough to justify this kind of money. My surprise at the 4k number comes from 2 thoughts :

- how come a dev from a poor country earns more than one in a rich country ? (I don't say they shouldn't, just that it's surprising)

- and as I wrote in another comment, I read since the war the average Ukrainian pension is 70$ a month. I would have thought devs salaries would be more in line. 4k a month must be "stratospherically" rich there.

You are taking the article too seriously. The guy googled a bit, came up with some half-digested ideas and burped them with a clickbait title. Here’s a recent overview of Ukrainian IT market on the largest Ukrainian IT community hub. Look at the last two pictures. http://dou.ua/lenta/columns/jobs-and-trends-2015/

In Poland (where salaries in general are higher than in Ukraine, my guess would be about twice as high) 4 grand for a dev isn't unheard of, but far from typical, especially outside of Warsaw.