Tech Salaries by State (2026)
median market pay range in CA — the top-paying US state for tech
+21.4%
California vs Texas
$120K
Illinois median (lower band)
52%
postings list no metro
California leads US tech pay with a median market pay range of $170K, ahead of New York ($167.5K) and Washington ($165K) — roughly 21.4% above Texas ($140K). Mapped across 28 states.
Figures are midpoints of market pay ranges shown to candidates (posted or estimated), across the mappable subset of postings — not employer-disclosed pay.
Key findings
- $170K median in CA — the top-paying state.
- California out-pays Texas by 21.4% ($170K vs $140K).
- 52% of postings say only “United States” — state stats cover the mappable subset.
The map: median tech pay by state
Hover a state for its median and posting count; click to pin a detail card. Color ramps from lower (muted) to higher (teal) median pay.
Hover a state for its median; click to pin.
States ranked by median pay
Top tech metros
Metros concentrate the premium even more sharply than states — San Mateo, CA tops the list at $205K.
| # | Metro | Postings | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York, NY | 7,799 | $171K |
| 2 | San Francisco, CA | 4,210 | $190K |
| 3 | Seattle, WA | 3,002 | $169K |
| 4 | Chicago, IL | 2,181 | $125K |
| 5 | Atlanta, GA | 1,963 | $125K |
| 6 | San Jose, CA | 1,780 | $178.5K |
| 7 | Redmond, WA | 1,335 | $160K |
| 8 | Jersey City, NJ | 1,297 | $160K |
| 9 | Santa Clara, CA | 1,216 | $160K |
| 10 | Los Angeles, CA | 1,119 | $150K |
| 11 | Sunnyvale, CA | 1,099 | $175.5K |
| 12 | Austin, TX | 993 | $144.5K |
| 13 | Mountain View, CA | 918 | $179K |
| 14 | Palo Alto, CA | 856 | $179K |
| 15 | Bellevue, WA | 847 | $160K |
| 16 | Dallas, TX | 843 | $140K |
| 17 | Denver, CO | 733 | $145.5K |
| 18 | Boston, MA | 680 | $150K |
| 19 | City, CA | 650 | $174.5K |
| 20 | Irvine, CA | 591 | $137K |
| 21 | Charlotte, NC | 577 | $136.5K |
| 22 | Fremont, CA | 479 | $140K |
| 23 | Phoenix, AZ | 469 | $128.5K |
| 24 | Plano, TX | 463 | $140K |
| 25 | McLean, VA | 411 | $150.5K |
| 26 | San Diego, CA | 399 | $139K |
| 27 | Houston, TX | 393 | $139.5K |
| 28 | Washington, DC | 379 | $135K |
| 29 | San Mateo, CA | 375 | $205K |
| 30 | Pittsburgh, PA | 339 | $125K |
One row (“City, CA”) is a residual from an upstream city-name truncation we could not safely repair; it is shown as-is for transparency.
What the geography actually says
The CA / NY / WA premium is durable: those three states carry the highest medians ($170K, $167.5K, and $165K) and the deepest samples (32,037 postings between them). The drop to inland hubs is real but measured — Illinois sits at $120K and Georgia at $125K, roughly a quarter below the coastal leaders rather than a different universe.
The bigger story is what is missing. About 52% of postings give no metro at all — just “United States” — and another 5.8% are explicitly remote. As remote anchoring spreads, employers increasingly quote a single national band instead of a metro-specific one, which slowly erodes the geographic signal these maps are built on. Read the state medians as the pay of roles that still declare a location, not as the whole market.
The numbers
$170K
median in CA (top state)
n=16,982
21.4%
California's premium over Texas
$205K
top metro: San Mateo, CA
52%
of postings give no metro
How this was measured (n=204,223)
Sample: 204,223 postings · Window: 2026-03-20 – 2026-06-09
Method
- Locations are repaired (an upstream bug dropped the first token of multi-word cities) and mapped to USPS state codes.
- A state is published only when ≥200 postings map to it; metros require a repaired-city match.
- Per state: median / p25 / p75 of the posted pay-range midpoint, plus remote share.
Limitations
- ~52% of postings list only "United States"; 5.8% are literally "Remote" — both are unmappable to a state.
- Median = midpoint of a market pay range shown to candidates, not employer disclosure.
- Corpus is US tech & professional roles, not all US jobs.
Salary figures are platform-estimated posted ranges (posted or estimated), not employer disclosure. Corpus is tech & professional roles.