A new report shows local tech pay is closer to San Francisco wages than previously thought, but Tampa Bay is among the lowest-paying markets across the country.
Tech jobs in metro Tampa Bay pay 75% of what they do in San Francisco, according to a recent analysis by Carta Inc., a management platform for companies and investors. The report shows how Tampa Bay and other markets compare to San Francisco, the top-paying market, as cities across the U.S. compete for sought-after tech talent.
Wages are an important factor in the competitiveness of a market for skilled tech talent. That's especially true during a tight tech labor market in which employees have a lot of power. Roughly 24% of tech sector workers are looking for a new job in Q2, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association.
Here’s a closer look at what the Carta report unveiled:
Still catching up
If the 49 U.S. metros in the report all are chasing San Francisco, then Tampa Bay is at the bottom of the pack. The region was No. 42 in a lineup of 49 MSAs, tying with Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio.
Carta’s report established four tiers for the metros.
Tampa Bay was in the "Tier 4" category, the lowest on the list. The "Tier 1" cities where employees can expect the highest salaries are San Francisco; San Jose, California; Seattle and New York City.
Miami was in Tier 2, with 90% of payment comparable to Tier 1. Orlando was ahead of Tampa Bay, placed in the Tier 3 ranking with 80% of comparable pay to Silicon Valley. Jacksonville joined Tampa in the fourth tier, rounding out the list in last place with 61% of comparable pay to Silicon Valley.
Comparing to the BLS
Carta found every metro included in its report pays higher salaries than the averages tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Going off BLS data, Tampa Bay's tech industry only pays 69% of San Francisco’s, or a 6% difference. In some markets, the disparity was much bigger. Miami’s was the biggest, with a 22 percentage point difference.
Remote hires surpass local hires
The report doesn't account for the differences in cost of living, and an area like Tampa Bay is typically less expensive to live in than better-paying markets like New York or Silicon Valley. But the cost of living has risen exponentially across the nation, and in Tampa Bay particularly, rent has skyrocketed as flocks of transplants from both coasts have settled in the region.
In 2020, the average rent in the Tampa Bay area was $1,715 per month, versus San Francisco's $2,212, according to data available from Apartment List and the U.S. Census Bureau in early 2022. But while Tampa Bay has cheaper rent, more of the total household income went toward paying rent. In Tampa Bay, tenants spent 36% of their household income on rent versus 23% in San Francisco.
The cost of living within a particular region has begun to mean less as many new hires don't live in the same places they're working.
So far in 2022, 62% of U.S. tech hires were people based out-of-state of the company, Carta found. Carta tracked the proportion of out-of-state hires going back to 2015, and this year is the highest on record. Out-of-state hires surpassed the 50% mark last year when they reached 55% of tech hires.
Sales jobs lead the pack
Average salaries are increasing in basically every tech industry department, but it’s not the highly technical skills driving the biggest pay bumps. Instead, sales wages had the biggest jump between Q4 and Q2, increasing 9.06%. That was followed by an 8.9% increase for data positions and a 6.2% bump for customer success roles.
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