USA · Technology · Salary

Software developers: pay by state and city

What software developers — the main job for this pathway — earn across the U.S., from the latest BLS wage survey (May 2025).

U.S. median$135,980
BLS OEWS · May 2025
Occupational Employment and Wage StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Period
May 2025
SOC
15-1252 Software developers
File
oe.data.0.Current (download.bls.gov)
View official data
U.S. average (mean)$148,100
Jobs in the survey1,687,890
Most jobsCalifornia284,390 jobs · median $174,410

Pay where you want to work

Pick a state or search a metro area. The bar shows the spread from the lowest-paid 10% to the top 10% in that place.

United States

Software developers · annual wages, May 2025
BLS OEWS · May 2025
Occupational Employment and Wage StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Period
May 2025
SOC
15-1252 Software developers
File
oe.data.0.Current (download.bls.gov)
View official data
Lowest 10% below
$82,460
25th percentile
$105,210
Median
$135,980
75th percentile
$171,980
Top 10% above
$214,670
Middle half of workersMedianMean $148,100Jobs 1,687,890

BLS publishes this occupation for 52 state-level areas (50 states, DC and territories where available) and 513 metro and nonmetro areas. Places it does not publish are not estimated here.

Where the jobs are, and where pay is highest

Median annual pay, May 2025. Highest-pay lists only include places with at least 500 jobs. BLS wages are not adjusted for living costs, which are usually higher where pay is higher.

States with the most jobs

  1. California284,390 jobs$174,410
  2. Texas163,880 jobs$132,150
  3. New York113,510 jobs$166,180
  4. Washington107,030 jobs$166,540
  5. Virginia88,280 jobs$136,460

Highest-paying states

  1. California284,390 jobs$174,410
  2. Washington107,030 jobs$166,540
  3. New York113,510 jobs$166,180
  4. Massachusetts48,190 jobs$165,210
  5. Oregon21,830 jobs$142,720

Metro areas with the most jobs

  1. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ121,000 jobs$166,830
  2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA92,770 jobs$167,280
  3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA87,350 jobs$213,110
  4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV69,060 jobs$154,930
  5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA69,030 jobs$186,640

Highest-paying metro areas

  1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA87,350 jobs$213,110
  2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA69,030 jobs$186,640
  3. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA92,770 jobs$167,280
  4. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ121,000 jobs$166,830
  5. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH42,310 jobs$166,090
All 52 state-level areas (sortable)
Pay by state; select a column heading to sort
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Every job in this pathway

National figures. A field of study leads to several occupations, each with its own pay.

OccupationLowest 10%MedianTop 10%Jobs
Software developers —$135,980——
Computer systems analysts —$105,850——
Information security analysts —$129,180——
Data scientists —$120,230——
Computer and information research scientists —$140,300——

"Jobs" counts wage-and-salary jobs in the OEWS survey; it differs from the employment totals in BLS projections. "—": BLS publishes this group as separate occupations; the median shown is the group figure from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Median pay by industry · software developers

  • Software publishers$164,550
  • Manufacturing$136,330
  • Management of companies and enterprises$135,680
  • Finance and insurance$135,460
  • Computer systems design and related services$132,050
Data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national, state, metro and nonmetro estimates). How Margdarshan sources its data → · Back to Computer Science