Top 10 Cities offering Highest Salaries for Techies

Are you a tech professional looking to relocate and wish to know which city offers the best package along with great work-life balance and job satisfaction? Please read through the below article to find out the top 10 cities offering highest salaries for techies…

When it comes to technology jobs, Silicon Valley is always the preferred choice by IT professionals to settle down because of the hefty pay checks offered by technology giants in this region. Thousands of high-tech corporations like Apple, Google, eBay, Cisco Systems and Intel etc. have their headquarters in the Silicon Valley region. But Silicon Valley is not the only place where technology professionals get an average salary of more than $100,000 per annum as there are many other cities in this list.

Dice Tech Salary Survey is conducted every year which gives an overview of the critical skills which have the highest demand in IT industry and also the average salaries received by techies across different cities. This can help technology professionals to figure out which region offers the healthiest pay checks so that they can think about relocation. As per the survey, techies get an average salary of six figures in more than 8 cities with San Jose in the top list. Employers also realize that it’s necessary to offer competitive pay in such cities so that they can hire the best talent.

Salary surveys are also conducted by popular job portals such as indeed.com and glassdoor.com every year.  The programming website codementor also conducted a survey recently on the “real earnings” of software developers in 43 cities by calculating the amount they can save after deducting their living expenses and taxes based on the city they work. Based on this survey, all the highest-paying cities in tech were all based out of United States with the list topped by San Jose, Seattle and Phoenix. Apart from US, the other high paying cities for techies are Oslo, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Montreal. The below list of top 10 cities with highest salaries is based on the consolidated data from various surveys done by such independent entities.

1. San Jose

San Jose is the top paying city for technology professionals where the average income is around $120,000 per annum while the median base salary is $112,000. Being the 3^rd largest city in California, this city has a population of 1 million. It also has the headquarters of some of the major blue chip technology companies in the surrounding area which includes Apple, Google, NVidia, Adobe, AMD, Intel etc., to name a few. The work-life balance and job satisfaction rating for the tech professionals working here in San Jose is 3.5 according to the survey conducted by Glassdoor.

2. San Francisco

This beautiful city where you can watch the lovely sunset every day by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is also an attractive choice for tech workers to settle down with an average salary of $118,000. The city also has a huge number of job openings for techies and is the headquarters for tech giants like Uber, Airbnb and Square. The median base salary is $88,000 and the job satisfaction rating is 3.5

3. New York

With an estimated population of more than 8 million, it is the most populous city in the United States.  This city of sky scrapers is also a great place for techies with huge number of companies that offer hefty pay checks. According to the survey conducted by Indeed, the average salary received by tech employees residing in New York during 2016 was $109,765. According to Dice Survey, the average pay in New York was $106,263 in 2015 which was 11.2% growth compared to previous year.  Several tech companies like MongoDB, Sprinklr and AppNexus etc. have their headquarters in New York.

4. Boston

According to the survey by Dice.com, tech professionals working at the capital of Massachusetts received an average salary of $103,368 for 2016. Glassdoor reported more than 121,498 job openings during the same year and the median base salary of $67,500. The job satisfaction and work-life balance rating during 2016 for Boston was 3.4 based on the feedback from various tech professionals in this city.

5. San Diego

This city located in the pacific coast of California is known for its beautiful beaches and pleasant climate. Chipset maker Qualcomm has its headquarters in San Diego and many other tech giants have their offices here. According to Dice Tech Survey, the average salary for tech professionals in San Diego was $102,899.  Glassdoor reported a median base salary of $71,323 for 2016 and job satisfaction rating of 3.4

6. Minneapolis

Minneapolis–St Paul is a major metropolitan area which is built around the Mississippi river in the US state of Minnesota. The Average salary according to Dice survey was $99,404 per annum including bonuses, cash awards and other allowances. The city had more than 65,000 job openings in 2016 and a median base salary of $65,000. The work-life balance and job satisfaction rating was 3.3

7. Los Angeles

The home of Hollywood celebrities is also one of the highest paying cities for tech professionals with an average salary of $99,400.  It is the headquarters of SnapChat which went public this march. It also has the headquarters of the space exploration firm SpaceX founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. The job satisfaction rating is 3.4

8. Seattle

According to the survey by Codementor, Seattle is considered the best city in US for software engineers with real earnings of 45.1k and an average salary of $99,290.  The headquarters of Internet giant Amazon, this city also has a huge number of job openings for techies especially UI/UX designers and Data scientists. The Median Base Salary is around $85,000 and the Job Satisfaction rating is 3.4

9. Washington D.C

As per Dice Salary Survey, techies working at the capital of United States were drawing an average salary of $97,958 per annum in 2016.  Data Scientists were of high demand in Washington DC/Baltimore region and the Median Base salary was $70,000 P.A.  The work-life balance was rated as 3.3 and job satisfaction rating was 3.4

10. Chicago

With 2.7 million residents, it is the 3rd most populous city located on Lake Michigan in the US state of Illinois. Chicago is known for its sky-scrapers and is a great place for tech professionals to earn decent salaries. The average salary including bonuses and other allowances was $95,386 with the median base salary of $63,000. Chicago had a work-life balance and job satisfaction rating of 3.2