We've got it good, and we know it.
For the eighth year in a row, Austin has been tagged as the fastest-growing major metro area. And, for the fourth year in a row, Austin tech workers have the highest average salary when adjusted based on cost of living in San Francisco, according to a new report by careers site Hired.
In 2018, Austin's tech workers were making an average of $125,000 a year -- up 6 percent compared to last year.
For some perspective, Hired says an Austin tech employee would, on average, need an $83,000 raise to maintain the same standard of living in San Francisco as they have in the 512. And it's the third year in a row that the Austin metro tops the list of where tech workers’ salaries stretch the farthest.
Considering all that, perhaps it's not surprising that Austin also holds the top spot in the hearts of tech workers in other cities, ranking No. 1 as the most appealing place for tech workers to relocate. It's just ahead of Seattle and Amsterdam.
Of course, all this good news can fuel some bad news.
Like the Bay Area has seen, rapidly rising salaries translates to escalating home prices, rents and other cost of living factors -- not to mention traffic and the displacement of long-time residents who may not be enjoying the rising tide of tech.
Consider that the average tech salary in Austin in 2015 was $108,000. It hit $110,000 in 2016, climbed to $118,000 in 2017 and reached $125,000 last year. That's 15 percent in three years, significantly faster than the average worker's roughly 3 percent annual wage growth nationwide.
Meanwhile, tech workers remain hungry and they have high expectations.
"One in three tech workers expect a raise within eight months of starting at a new company if they receive a positive performance review — possibly putting pressure on companies to boost salaries across the board," the report said.
And there's more bad news mixed in into Hired's report, which is based on its own marketplace data and surveys.
The tech industry continues to pay black workers less than their peers -- about $11,000 less -- and Hired said the gap continues to grow. Meanwhile, for the first time since Hired has been conducting this research, Asian tech workers started making more than their white counterparts -- by an average of $2,000.
Even age seems to be a factor when it comes to tech worker salary.
In what seems like a reversal of the traditional wage growth workers experience as they get older and gain more experience, Hired's figures show salary growth goes flat after age 40.
And average salaries tend to fall the older you get.
For example, someone in their mid-40s is bringing in around $149,000 -- for those in their 50s, it's around $146,000 and those in their 60s average $144,000.
