Key Takeaways
Welcome to the Dice Tech Salary Report! If this is your first time reviewing our annual resource, we’re so glad you’re here. For those who have used the Tech Salary Report to help navigate their career discussions and decision-making year in and year out (it's our 17th year conducting the Salary Survey that informs this report), welcome back!
This year’s report is packed with information on how technologists are viewing and valuing benefits like vacation and education, and deep dives into salary trends by occupation, skill and location. It’s also in a brand-new format, designed to make it easier for you to read, navigate and share — to easily find what you’re looking for, use the navigation bar at the top of each page, the linked Table of Contents, or the search field in the top right-hand corner of the page. Before you do that though, scroll down or click the down arrow to view the four key takeaways from this year's report.
We hope you find this year's report useful and valuable, and that 2022 is your best year yet!
The Average Tech Salary Is Now Six Figures
While COVID-19 spurred economic uncertainty across the U.S., the forced digitization, mass move to virtual work and increased security concerns resulting from the pandemic only boosted the urgent need for tech talent of all kinds. And organizations across nearly every industry and vertical were willing to pay for it, as the average tech salary of our survey respondents increased 6.9% between 2020 and 2021, exceeding six figures ($104,566). That’s the highest average salary ever recorded by the Dice Tech Salary Report.
Technologists Want Traditional Benefits… But Keep an Eye on These Up-and-Comers
Of course, technologists continue to value “bread and butter” benefits such as paid vacation days, health and dental insurance, and paid sick days — all of which many organizations continue to provide. However, significant percentages of technologists are also interested in benefits gaining prominence in the pandemic, such as a work-from-home stipend and child/elder care options, which are offered by a much smaller subset of employers. With technologists currently in a good place to negotiate their compensation packages, it will be interesting to see if the number of organizations offering these benefits designed for the new world of work increases in coming years.
Merit Raises Remain a Strong Way to Boost Salary
Yet again, more technologists saw their salaries rise due to merit raises (likely a sign that, not only are technologists doing excellent work, but organizations are recognizing market demand and focusing heavily on technologist retention). Changing employers and maneuvering for internal promotion also remained strong ways to grow a paycheck. Far fewer managed to land a cost-of-living bump or a company-wide salary increase.
A Mix of Cities Enjoyed Significant Tech Salary Growth
For the past several years, cities across the country have devoted considerable resources to fostering local tech scenes. Those efforts seem to be paying off, with cities such as Atlanta, Chicago and Seattle all experiencing notable year-over-year increases in technologist salaries — indicative of the high demand that comes with a robust tech scene.
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