2027 Salary Guide · Technology
About 1.7 million people work as software developers, the BLS occupation that covers software engineers, and their median wage was $135,980 in May 2025. That projects to about $144,500 for 2027. Location shifts pay more than most factors: every one of the 29 metros in this guide has a median of at least $124,500, but the San Francisco Bay Area's is $186,640.
Local pay
New York is the largest market, with about 121,000 software developers, followed by Seattle at about 92,770. The Bay Area median of $186,640 leads all metros, and Pittsburgh's $124,500 is the lowest, a gap of about $62,140. Washington, DC and the Bay Area each employ about 69,000.
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | $186,640 +37% | $128,090 – $273,400 | 69,030 |
| Seattle | $167,280 +23% | $99,190 – $257,960 | 92,770 |
| New York City | $166,830 +23% | $101,690 – $224,590 | 121,000 |
| Boston | $166,090 +22% | $102,950 – $214,100 | 42,310 |
| San Diego | $163,270 +20% | $95,420 – $223,260 | 20,610 |
| Los Angeles | $160,920 +18% | $98,270 – $223,150 | 55,540 |
| Portland | $156,000 +15% | $94,040 – $213,540 | 18,260 |
| Washington, DC | $154,930 +14% | $96,450 – $213,660 | 69,060 |
| Baltimore | $138,900 +2% | $87,290 – $223,550 | 16,850 |
| Denver | $137,610 +1% | $99,700 – $209,300 | 27,010 |
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte | $135,920 +-0% | $93,690 – $172,360 | 20,820 |
| Chicago | $134,380 -1% | $83,820 – $203,410 | 40,370 |
| Austin | $134,120 -1% | $96,110 – $209,890 | 31,960 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $133,290 -2% | $85,920 – $179,400 | 67,030 |
| Philadelphia | $133,040 -2% | $82,960 – $190,180 | 28,480 |
| Atlanta | $132,960 -2% | $83,400 – $178,330 | 36,300 |
| Raleigh | $132,770 -2% | $80,080 – $185,110 | 12,580 |
| Miami | $132,650 -2% | $80,440 – $199,280 | 18,900 |
| Hartford | $132,520 -3% | $86,800 – $176,390 | 6,010 |
| Phoenix | $131,750 -3% | $82,500 – $180,460 | 29,380 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $130,920 -4% | $83,020 – $170,060 | 27,410 |
| Detroit | $130,760 -4% | $82,720 – $167,490 | 24,870 |
| Providence | $130,690 -4% | $84,130 – $172,090 | 5,020 |
| Tampa | $130,450 -4% | $78,480 – $207,330 | 14,230 |
| Houston | $129,440 -5% | $80,400 – $181,770 | 22,940 |
| Albany | $127,910 -6% | $80,800 – $178,120 | 3,280 |
| Buffalo | $127,850 -6% | $79,080 – $172,730 | 3,960 |
| Nashville | $126,610 -7% | $78,410 – $169,070 | 7,750 |
| Pittsburgh | $124,500 -8% | $76,030 – $191,710 | 10,320 |
BLS metro estimates, May 2025. Percent compares the metro median with the national median. "Jobs" is BLS estimated employment in the metro; blank where BLS does not publish it.
Career levels
BLS does not report pay by experience. These levels map typical engineering ladders onto the national percentiles.
About $82,000 to $105,000 (10th to 25th percentile)
Works on defined tasks within an existing codebase, with code review from senior engineers. In high-cost metros the local 10th percentile is often well above the national one.
About $105,000 to $172,000 (25th to 75th percentile)
Owns features or services end to end, from design to production. Most software engineers spend the longest stretch of their career in this band.
About $172,000 to $215,000+ (75th to 90th percentile)
Leads design for systems, mentors other engineers and makes tradeoff decisions. See the senior software engineer page for this band by metro.
Pay distribution
BLS counts software engineers and software developers as one occupation, so these percentiles apply directly to the title. The full range is shaded because the title covers every level, from new graduate to principal.
Typical for the Software Engineer title: $105,210 to $171,980 (25th to 75th percentile of Software Developers)
| Percentile | BLS, May 2025 | 2027 planning estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $82,460 | $87,500 |
| 25th percentile | $105,210 | $112,000 |
| Median | $135,980 | $144,500 |
| 75th percentile | $171,980 | $183,000 |
| 90th percentile | $214,670 | $228,000 |
About the number
The BLS Software Developers occupation is unusually close to the job title. O*NET's sample of reported titles for it includes Software Engineer, Software Developer, Software Development Engineer, Application Developer and DevOps Engineer. So unlike many tech roles, there is no proxy problem: these are the people who hold the title.
The occupation is broad in other ways. It includes engineers at banks, insurers, hospitals, government agencies and software companies, writing everything from embedded code to web apps. The national median blends all of them, which is why the 25th to 75th percentile, $105,210 to $171,980, is more useful than any single figure.
Education is fairly uniform. When O*NET asked workers in the occupation, 85% said a new hire needs a bachelor's degree.
Outlook
BLS projects much faster than average growth and about 95,300 openings a year, the most of any technology occupation in this guide. Most openings come from people changing occupations or retiring, not only from new positions.
BLS Employment Projections via O*NET OnLine. Projections cover Software Developers as a whole.
Compare
Full-stack and DevOps engineers are counted as software developers, so their BLS figures match. QA engineers are a separate occupation with a lower median of $104,300, about $31,700 below software developers.
| Role | BLS median | 2027 estimate | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Senior Software Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Full Stack Developer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| DevOps Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| QA Engineer | $104,300 | $111,000 | Faster than average |
For job seekers
A $135,000 offer is about the national median, but it is below the local median in 11 of the 29 metros, including the Bay Area, Seattle, New York, Boston and Denver.
Titles vary by employer. Ask where the role sits on the company's ladder and what the next level pays.
BLS figures are wages. Stock and bonuses can change the comparison, especially at public tech companies.
Some employers set remote pay by the employee's location, others by a single national band. Ask which applies before comparing offers.
FAQ
The BLS median for software developers, the occupation that includes software engineers, was $135,980 in May 2025. The middle half earned $105,210 to $171,980, and the top tenth more than $214,670. Adding two years of wage growth at 3.1% a year gives a 2027 planning median of about $144,500.
Software engineer starting pay is not a published BLS number. The 10th percentile, $82,460, and the 25th percentile, $105,210, bracket most entry-level salaries nationally. In the Bay Area the 10th percentile alone is $128,090, so new-graduate offers there are much higher.
BLS converts annual pay to hourly on a 2,080-hour working year. At the national median of $135,980, that is about $65 an hour. Contract software engineers are usually quoted hourly, and their rates are often higher because they carry no benefits.
For pay data, yes: the two titles share one occupation. BLS and O*NET treat them as one occupation, Software Developers, and list Software Engineer as a reported job title. Some employers use engineer for roles with more systems design, but there is no separate federal wage figure.
The San Francisco Bay Area leads with a May 2025 software developer median of $186,640, followed by Seattle ($167,280), New York ($166,830) and Boston ($166,090) among the 29 metros in this guide.
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