Tech Salaries at Record High

According to the recent Dice Salary Report, the average tech salary of respondents now exceeds six figures, which is the highest ever recorded by the survey. Hiring activity for tech workers also hit a two-year high in October of 2021, according to a report from CompTIA, and many organizations are looking to hire workers immediately. 

These findings all reinforce the notion that now is a great time to get a job in tech, and in this article we’ll share highlights from the Dice report to provide an overview of the tech salary landscape. 

Here are a few key points:

• The average tech salary increased 6.9 percent between 2020 and 2021, reaching $104,566. 
• Changing employers and getting promoted are top ways to increase your salary.
• Up-and-coming tech hubs, such as Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Miami, saw the highest salary increases.

Job Titles

Certain occupations in the tech industry draw higher pay. The following list shows the reported salaries associated with common job titles.

• Cybersecurity engineer/architect: $135,059 (up 0.5%)
• Database administrator: $111,362 (up 12.4%) 
• Data analyst: $84,779 (up 11.5%)
• Data scientist: $120,650 (up 0.6%)
• DevOps engineer: $119,201 (up 3.5%)
• Network engineer: $93,373 (up 2.0%)
• Software developer: $120,204 (up 8.0%)
• System administrator: $88,642 (up 6.2%)
• Technical support engineer: $77,169 (up 12.4%)
• Web developer: $98,912 (up 21.3%)

Skills

Proficiency in certain skills and experience with specific tools can also translate to higher pay. Here’s a sampling of reported salaries and associated skills: 

• Apache Solr: $143,464
• Cloud computing: $117,450
• Elasticsearch: $137,203
• JavaScript: $109,833
• JSON: $121,015
• Python: $116,498
• Redis: $136,405
• Ruby: $128,689
• Tensorflow: $129,161

Experience

“It paid to be a technologist entering the tech industry in 2020 and 2021,” according to the report, with the survey results showing higher starting salaries for those entering tech-related fields. Here are the reported salaries in 2021 by years of experience:

• Less than 1 year: $68,693
• 1-2 years: $62,936
• 3-5 years: $76,898
• 6-10 years: $93,558
• 11-15 years: $108,125
• More than 15 years: $123,533

As the report states, “with tech unemployment notably low across the nation, organizations everywhere are willing to pay more for talent with the right combination of skills and experience.”

Other Resources

• 5 Tips for Successful Salary Negotiation from FOSSlife
• 9 Open Source Tech Careers to Consider from FOSSlife
• Tips for Making a Successful Career Change from FOSSlife
• Top In-Demand Tech Skills from FOSSlife

This article originally appeared on FOSSlife and is reprinted here with permission. (Photo by kschneider2991 on Pixabay.)