Where web developers earn the highest salaries

Net builders “take what a designer can put collectively and code the design” to create an internet site or webpage, says Dan Martino, digital director and founding father of 914Digital, a New York-based digital media firm. “If you happen to take a look at your browser, the developer took all of the graphics and encoded them.”

Working with instruments in quite a lot of programming languages, builders construct and deploy web sites — and so they can work on each the front-end and back-end of these websites. It is also a comparatively specialised talent set, which has historically made net improvement a high-paying profession.

How a lot do net builders earn?

As famous, the typical wage for net builders within the US, in response to the BLS, is roughly $93,000 per 12 months. However there are different valuations and lots of components that may finally have an effect on what a specific developer finally earns. For instance, wage information from Certainly reveals the median base wage for builders is slightly below $80,000 per 12 months.

And the place a developer lives additionally performs a giant position in what they will count on to earn. For instance, Washington, D.C., and states like California and Washington, with main tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Seattle, are likely to have excessive common developer salaries. However specialists say that issues are altering.

“There’s been a sure shift away from a few of the tech hubs,” says Nick Bunker, Certainly’s North American director of financial analysis. “A number of the largest drops,” he explains, by way of total net developer jobs, “had been in San Francisco, Seattle, and San Jose.” It is a part of a broader slowdown within the tech sector, however Bunker says builders “with the best abilities, talents and connections to get a foot within the door” are nonetheless prone to earn good salaries.

Cities and states with a big tech presence are one issue that may enhance developer earnings. So, to reiterate, states like California, Washington, Virginia (which borders DC), Massachusetts (Boston), and Texas (Austin) are typically within the higher echelon by way of developer salaries.

Value of residing

Naturally, completely different cities and states have completely different ranges of affordability and price of residing. An internet developer incomes a mean wage in California, for instance, could not really feel they’ve the identical buying energy as a developer incomes the identical wage in, say, Wyoming.

Potential builders ought to maintain this in thoughts. And with telecommuting changing into extra widespread, there could also be a possibility to attempt to negotiate the next wage relative to the native price of residing.

Net Developer Wage by State

This is how net developer salaries rank by state, in response to the newest information out there (Might 2023) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in descending order. You will additionally see the state’s corresponding annual common price of residing index, calculated by the Missouri Financial Analysis and Info Heart (MERIC).

“MERIC derives a price of residing index for every state by averaging the indices of collaborating cities and metropolitan areas in that state,” in response to its web site, weighting spending in classes akin to groceries, housing, utilities and transportation. As a normal rule of thumb, for simplicity, the upper the state’s price of residing index, the dearer the price of residing.

This is how MERIC ranks the respective median earnings for net builders in every state and the corresponding price of residing index in every state:

Takeaway

Net builders are likely to earn excessive relative salaries, however compensation can differ extensively based mostly on many components, together with the place you reside. Builders are typically extra prone to earn larger salaries in tech hub states like California or Washington, D.C., the place cities like San Francisco and Seattle are dwelling to many giant tech firms.

However with adjustments within the tech sector and the rise of distant work, builders could have extra choices to evaluate their choices and take a look at residing in areas with decrease prices of residing. Nevertheless it’s additionally necessary to understand that as of 2024, the tech sector is shrinking a bit and there aren’t as many roles as there have been just a few years in the past.

“It is a slowdown for a place that pays fairly nicely in comparison with different jobs,” Bunker says. “There was a noticeable pullback,” he says, however based mostly on the long-term development, net improvement ought to stay an space of ​​development and alternative.