Companies were willing to pay more for software engineers working remotely from Denver in 2021 compared to previous years, but they paid local employees in those types of positions less.
Companies paid Denver software engineers working remotely $146,000 on average in 2021, up 8% from the prior year, according to a survey by Hired. That’s part of a broader trend of pay growth for remote software engineers based outside of the largest tech hubs in Silicon Valley and New York.
Software engineers in Denver who weren’t working remotely made an average of $124,000, down 3% from 2020, according to the data.
A couple of other cities in the report — Dallas and Los Angeles — saw similar tends, with in-person salaries declining counter to rising remote compensation.
At the same time, Denver software engineers on the Hired platform received twice as many remote work interview requests compared to interviews for in-person employment. In fact, Denver had the second-highest remote-to-in-person ratio, after San Diego, California. Sixty five percent of software engineer interviews in Denver were for remote roles, the survey found.
These two trends together indicate that continued pressure from a tight talent market is pushing companies to seek employees outside the boundaries of their home cities, Hired CEO Josh Brenner said in the report. It may also indicate an exodus by software engineers from coastal cities during the pandemic.
Companies are increasingly offering more benefits and more flexibility to workers in response to the shifting labor market and employee power.
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), for instance, has increased its base pay cap for corporate and tech employees from $160,000 to $350,000 to help it recruit top talent. The company is offering both remote and hybrid positions.
Other companies are expanding office locations in order to recruit talent. Finder, an Australian financial tech company with many remote workers, picked Denver as its second U.S. hub in June 2021, adding 198 employees in the city, including software engineers.
Recent reports have indicated that Denver is growing rapidly as a technology hub, adding jobs in the sector at an annual growth rate in excess of 3%.
Hired is a New York-based company whose platform matches job candidates with technology and sales positions. The report was based on data from applicants and job openings on its own platform. It analyzed data from over 366,000 interactions between companies and potential employees and surveyed over 2,000 software engineer candidates on the platform.
