Is your software engineer salary on par for your location, experience and known platforms? Do you need to research software engineer earnings for a potential career change? Use this dynamic guide to compare past, present and projected software engineer salary ranges from the leading salary surveys and national data sources. Then use our job search and school finder tools to maximize your software engineer salary.
Check out the software engineer career path for a deep dive into this fast-growing position.
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Historic Software Engineer Salaries
Salary range and wage fluctuations for software engineers and related professionals over the past three years:
| Job Title | 2020 Salary | 2021 Salary | 2022 Salary | 2-Year Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $105,750 - $150,250 | $103,750 - $145,750 | $104,500 - $147,250 | - 1.7% |
| Software Developer | $99,250 - $143,000 | $97,250 - $138,000 | $100,500 - $142,750 | + 0.4% |
| Product Manager | $102,750 - $149,500 | $104,250 - $151,750 | $107,250 - $154,500 | + 3.8% |
| Mobile App Developer | $121,750 - $175,750 | $112,750 - $161,750 | $115,000 - $163,750 | - 6.3% |
| Applications Architect | $117,500 - $170,750 | $119,750 - $174,250 | $124,250 - $184,750 | + 7.2% |
Historic salary table notes: Salary ranges represent the national average. The lower figure in each range signifies the 25th percentile of workers (those with less skills and experience or living in a less competitive market) while the higher figure represents the 75th percentile (those with greater skills and experience).
Sources: Robert Half Technology 2020, 2021 & 2022 IT Salary Guides
Skills To Boost Your Software Engineering Salary
Learn these sought-after skills and languages to increase your earnings in the software space:
- Cloud architecture and application development
- Java, C#, PHP & Python programming
- SQL and Hadoop development
- DevOps Engineering
- Machine Learning (MI)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Software Engineer Salaries by State
| U.S. State / Location | Average Annual Wage | Average Hourly Wage |
|---|---|---|
Alabama | $102,990 | $49.51 |
Alaska | $113,800 | $54.71 |
Arizona | $114,630 | $55.11 |
Arkansas | $89,420 | $42.99 |
California | $146,770 | $70.56 |
Colorado | $120,140 | $57.76 |
Connecticut | $113,530 | $54.58 |
Delaware | $115,330 | $55.45 |
District of Columbia | $124,770 | $59.99 |
Florida | $105,200 | $50.58 |
Georgia | $114,740 | $55.16 |
Hawaii | $112,410 | $54.04 |
Idaho | $98,560 | $47.39 |
Illinois | $109,970 | $52.87 |
Indiana | $94,920 | $45.64 |
Iowa | $101,530 | $48.81 |
Kansas | $99,380 | $47.78 |
Kentucky | $97,810 | $47.02 |
Louisiana | $93,670 | $45.03 |
Maine | $101,440 | $48.77 |
Maryland | $131,240 | $63.09 |
Massachusetts | $128,190 | $61.63 |
Michigan | $97,730 | $46.99 |
Minnesota | $111,400 | $53.56 |
Mississippi | $85,590 | $41.15 |
Missouri | $100,290 | $48.21 |
Montana | $92,980 | $44.70 |
Nebraska | $98,590 | $47.40 |
Nevada | $101,850 | $48.97 |
New Hampshire | $116,940 | $56.22 |
New Jersey | $124,100 | $59.66 |
New Mexico | $107,460 | $51.66 |
New York | $129,950 | $62.48 |
North Carolina | $117,240 | $56.36 |
North Dakota | $83,460 | $40.13 |
Ohio | $101,870 | $48.97 |
Oklahoma | $100,840 | $48.48 |
Oregon | $115,160 | $55.36 |
Pennsylvania | $105,550 | $50.75 |
Puerto Rico | $58,020 | $27.90 |
Rhode Island | $128,790 | $61.92 |
South Carolina | $102,630 | $49.34 |
South Dakota | $85,910 | $41.30 |
Tennessee | $99,680 | $47.92 |
Texas | $111,830 | $53.77 |
Utah | $109,000 | $52.40 |
Vermont | $108,720 | $52.27 |
Virginia | $127,830 | $61.46 |
Washington | $145,150 | $69.78 |
West Virginia | $83,450 | $40.12 |
Wisconsin | $96,900 | $46.59 |
Wyoming | $85,730 | $41.22 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Top Paying Cities for Software Engineers
These cities and metropolitan areas pay the highest average wages to software engineers:
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: $167,420
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA: $158,320
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: $148,220
- Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD: $137,510
- Washington DC Metro Area, DC-VA-MD-WV: $133,850
- New York City Tri-State Area, NY-NJ-PA: $133,620
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Software Engineer Salaries by Specialty & Experience
Compare the average wage for software developers and engineers by skills, known programming languages and level of experience:
- Software QA Engineer: $89,000
- Junior Software Developer: $99,000
- Systems Software Engineer: $101,000
- Android App Developer: $101,000
- Mobile Application Developer: $105,000
- Software App Developer: $106,000
- PHP Software Engineer: $108,000
- iOS Software Engineer: $110,000
- Python Software Engineer: $110,000
- Java Software Engineer: $110,000
- Software Engineer: $118,000
- C++ Software Engineer: $119,000
- Perl Developer: $120,000
- Ruby Software Developer: $123,000
- Software Development Manager: $130,000
- Senior Software Developer: $137,000
- Lead Software Engineer: $158,000
Source: Glassdoor.com
Software Engineer Wages vs. Other IT Roles
Compare salaries for software engineers and related positions (in bold) to the remaining IT field:
- Systems Architect: $147,901
- Cloud Engineer: $140,571
- Cyber Security Engineer: $135,059
- Data Architect: $128,835
- Data Scientist: $120,650
- Software Developer: $120,204
- DevOps Engineer: $119,201
- MIS Manager: $119,186
- IT Project Manager: $118,517
- Systems Engineer: $112,407
- Database Administrator: $111,362
- Cyber Security Analyst: $102,253
- Business Intelligence Analyst: $101,497
- UI/UX Designer: $101,260
- Web Developer: $98,912
- Computer Programmer: $97,320
- Network Engineer: $93,373
- Application Support Engineer: $91,176
- Systems Administrator: $88,642
- Data Analyst: $84,779
- Technical Support Engineer: $77,169
Source: 2022 Tech Salary Report by Dice.com
Software Engineer Resources
- Explore the software engineer career track
- Software engineer education requirements
- Software engineer training programs
- Compare software engineering bootcamps
Web-based Software Engineer salary data refreshed annually.
Salary survey data updated annually upon release dates.
