Tech salaries vary widely around the nation. But no matter where you are, employees with tech skills are earning a much higher wage than their non-tech counterparts.
That trend holds true in Houston, where tech workers are earning a median wage of $89,197 — 112% greater than the overall median wage.
The finding is one takeaway from a new deep dive into tech salaries by tech trade association CompTIA, which found the median national tech wage of $100,615 in was 103% higher than the median national wage.
The data is from 2021, which is the most recent available, but the hot talent market of the past two years likely took the median significantly higher — with tech industry workers seeing some of the most substantial gains, according to recruiters.
The tech landscape has continued to evolve this year, with challenging conditions pushing layoffs across the sector. Houston companies have not gone untouched by this trend — last year, information technology platform provider Liongard cut an unspecified amount of jobs, and in May 2023, Axios reported Femtec Health, founded by serial health care entrepreneur Kimon Angelides, cut all of its staff as part of its shuttering.
Though salaries are higher, tech workers do not make up a significant portion of Houston’s overall workforce, with the report finding that the technology sector employs 4.2% of local workers. Using figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CompTIA found the sector contributes to 3.3% of the metro area’s overall economic impact.
In the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Lands metropolitan statistical area, there are 7,600 tech firms with payroll. At the end of 2022, employers posted 70,358 openings for tech jobs.
An increase in new job postings is one area Houston stands out across the country, according to CompTIA. The city was ranked fifth in the nation in year-over-year increases in job postings from 2021 to 2022, following New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. Houston was also a top 10 metro area in annual tech job gains, adding 5,090 employees last year — though that still ranks below Dallas, which gained 14,010 employees, and Austin, which added 10,795 workers.
New jobs are still flowing in Houston in 2023, however. A separate CompTIA report found the Bayou City ranked second in the nation for new jobs posted in April, only behind Dallas.
Another finding from the report was that all four of Texas’ major metro areas were ranked in the first quartile of CompTIA’s diversity index. Houston reported that Black workers made up 11% of tech workers, compared to 15% of all local workers. Meanwhile, 17% of the area’s tech workforce comes from a Hispanic or Latino background, compared to 33% of the overall workforce. Women, however, remain underrepresented — 47% of Houston’s workforce are women, but only 28% work in the technology sector.
CompTIA’s Houston-specific findings parallel other reports made by organizations such as Dice, which found in its 2022 report that Houston led metro areas including Orlando, Florida; Detroit; and Miami in year-over-year job posting growth. In its 2023 Tech Salary Report, Dice ranked Houston 18th in the nation for average tech salary, ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth but behind Austin.
Several factors contributing to Houston’s growing tech workforce include the presence of a developing startup ecosystem. Houston's so-called "innovation corridor," which runs from downtown to the Texas Medical Center, was noted in Dice’s report as a point in the city’s favor. Although no specific incubators were named, the report named the Texas Medical Center — with plans to open the 500-acre BioPort campus — and Rice University as draws.
Since 2019, Houston has seen the launch of the Ion, a 300,000-square-foot innovation hub on Main Street; multiple locations of The Cannon, an accelerator hub; and the Houston location of Boston-based climate incubator Greentown Labs. Areas outside of the city limits have seen growth in innovation hubs, with The Cannon opening its first location in Montgomery County and a group of incubator hubs partnering with the Fort Bend Economic Development Council to create the Fort Bend Innovation Council.
Houston Business Journal research found the largest local tech company by revenue is Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE), which reported $27.78 billion in 2021 revenue and had 62,252 employees.
