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's the takeaway from a new deep dive into tech salaries by tech trade association CompTIA, which found the median 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.
But there are signs some of those gains are slowing.
The tech landscape has continued to evolve this year, with challenging conditions pushing layoffs across the sector.
And some companies, like Microsoft Corp. , are pausing salary hikes this year. Microsoft also said performance bonuses for executives will be down considerably compared to the year before.
Meanwhile, experts have told The Playbook many companies are dialing back on the aggressive raises of the past two years — although they've noted workers with specific, in-demand skills are often an exception, depending on the market.
Top states for tech salaries
Tech workers in Washington state have the highest median wage in the country at nearly $130,000, according to CompTIA's data.
Wages in the Pacific Northwest state outpaced median pay in Washington, D.C., California, New Jersey and Massachusetts, the next four highest for tech wages.
The lowest paying states for tech workers are South Dakota, Mississippi, Wyoming, Louisiana and West Virginia, which all have a median tech wage less than $70,000.
Those wages are, however, significantly more than each state's median wage for all workers. In Mississippi, the $66,901 tech wage is more than 100% higher than the state's overall median wage.
Top cities for tech
At a time when the tech sector is in flux, CompTIA's analysis also shows which cities could be most vulnerable to the industry's challenges.
Specifically, the data showed the cities where tech represents the largest portions of the local economy.
Not surprisingly, San Jose and San Francisco are in the top three, along with Seattle, home to tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft.
Here are the top 10 cities where tech represents the largest portion of the local economy, according to CompTIA.
1. San Jose, California 57.1%
2. Seattle, Washington 28.9%
3. San Francisco, California 26.8%
4. Austin, Texas 23.8%
5. Raleigh, North Carolina 16.5%
6. Boston, Massachusetts 14.6%
7. Portland, Oregon 14.4%
8. Denver, Colorado 13.1%
9. Washington, D.C. 12.9%
10. Atlanta, Georgia 12.1%
As we've noted, emerging hubs are cutting into the dominance of longtime tech centers like Silicon Valley — and it shows in both salary trends and deal flow.
Phoenix (26% increase) and Tampa (19% increase) led the way for tech salary growth in a recent analysis by Dice, while Denver was one of the few exceptions to a dip in VC activity.
In fact, the Bay Area's share of overall U.S. venture capital deals has fallen below 20% for three consecutive quarters — the lowest VC data firm PitchBook has ever recorded.
After tallying roughly 25% of all VC deals in 2014, the Bay Area's share of deals was just 18% last quarter.
