Tech Workers Need More Than the Average U.S. Salary And This Is Why

By Aoibhinn Mc Bride

Thanks to salary transparency laws in several U.S. states, it’s never been easier to see what employers are willing to pay.

And according to recent data compiled by Indeed, job seekers are 75% more likely to apply for a job that displays salary information over those that don’t.

However, with some salary bands so vast—software developers postings, in particular, often display some of the widest salary bands— it’s impossible to gauge what the actual figure you can expect to earn is, and only 22% of employers state the exact wage or salary on job postings.

The good news is that inflation has finally infiltrated salaries, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data’s July 2023 Survey of Consumer Expectations found that salaries have jumped nearly $10,000 on average compared to July 2022.

The report found that in July, the average salary for a full-time job was $69,475 compared to $60,764 a year before.

For those switching jobs, it gets even better—respondents said the lowest salary they were prepared to accept in a new job was $78,645, almost $6,000 higher than what was deemed acceptable a year earlier.

Cost-of-Living Crisis Continues

However, with inflation continuing to rise—the index for all items including food and gasoline has risen 3.7% over the past 12 months—salary increases, although welcome, are only scratching the surface when it comes to tackling the rising cost of living.

And for tech workers in particular, many of whom are based in areas such as San Jose in northern California, the average salary falls short of the $80,013 a single person or $130,239 a family of four needs to get by.

In California, the average house costs $1,385,816, and San Francisco is the third most expensive city to live in after New York and Honolulu in terms of grocery costs.

Additionally, childcare in California can range from $990 to $1,785 per child, per month.

One way to get around this is opting for remote work so you can be based in a more affordable city—Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Alabama are the three cheapest places to live in the U.S. or you could move to a new role in a new company in order to negotiate a higher salary than you’re currently earning.

If the latter is the case, make the HackerNoon Job Board your first port of call. It features thousands of roles in tech, including the three below.

Product Designer (Remote), Givebutter, Wilmington

Nonprofit fundraising platform Givebutter is hiring a Product Designer. Working remotely with the Product team, you will translate feature requirements into designs that reflect Givebutter’s design language and systems, collaborate with other designers to continue to refine, improve, and document Givebutter’s design system, and you’ll also partner with the engineering team to bring your designs to life and ensure that the implementation aligns with product design standards.

As such, you will design wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups that communicate design concepts and product requirements and perform design reviews on front-end changes to ensure they match designs. View additional details here.

Software Developer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Annapolis Junction

As a Software Developer at Booz Allen Hamilton, you will provide computer network operations capability development and engineering services including defense and exploitation to gain strategic advantages.

In this role, you will be required to apply leading-edge principles, theories, and concepts to continue the development of new principles and concepts and work on unusually complex problems to provide highly innovative solutions.

You will also get the opportunity to mentor employees in both firm and technical competencies. See the full job description here.

Cyber Security, CACI, VA

Are you passionate about working with leading-edge technology, on high-performing teams, and have a desire to learn valuable skills and experiences that will propel your career?

CACI is seeking __Cyber Security / Engineering __professionals responsible for discovering vulnerabilities and risks in network systems with ongoing vulnerability scans, monitoring network data, and ensuring hardware and software applications are updated.

In this remote role, you will develop security systems through testing, analysis, and implementation, perform system vulnerability assessments, respond to security threats, attacks, and similar events, and develop threat prevention strategies. Get more information here.

For thousands more opportunities in tech, visit the HackerNoon Job Board today