How Much Do Software Engineers Really Make?

Do you know how much software engineers really make based on their location? Let's break down average salaries, taxes, and cost of living for different cities that are popular among software engineers.

Just a few of the sources I used:

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I share and document my experiences on topics including computer science, software engineering, and iOS development. I'm a full-time Software Engineer and a part-time YouTuber & iOS developer. My hobbies outside of what's been mentioned include surfing, snowboarding, hunting, fishing, and playing video games.

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[fknight]

Hope y'all enjoyed this video! If you did, don't forget to subscribe and hit the thumbs up button.

Two things:
1. I misspoke a time or two but did my best to correct it with the on-screen text. If you see a mistake in my math, let me know. I'm sure there are a few in there that I didn't catch while editing. Doing math while recording is kinda hard haha.
2. Everyone has something to say when it comes to money, so let me just say these are the results I found when doing research and stayed consistent with where I collected my data. Rent can vary depending on your living conditions but I kept my sources consistent for each city.

[WebDevSimplified]

So true. I live in Nebraska, and my salary is drastically lower than a person working in San Francisco, but I feel so much richer than if I was in San Francisco. My house payment alone is less than half of a single bedroom apartment there. It is crazy. The Midwest is really one of the best places to be as a software developer in my opinion.

[IWasHereFirst]

I was crying when watiching this. As an average software developer in Berlin (Germany), you earn $ 55, 463 a year. After taxes, heathcare, old age insurance this will be reduced to $ 33, 958 a year. Rental cost for a two room appartment in berlin is about $ 1, 400.

[darraghruddy]

It always baffles me how few people in tech don't know that you should use median rather than average for heavily skewed data such as wages,

[mitchell]

You missed a couple major points that help you save significant amounts (in SF at least). Companies often provide a public transportation stipend, and at least one meal a day. Younger devs usually live with roommates.
But the biggest thing is that living in a major tech hub gives you amazing connections.

[loganberry]

“I spent $1.00 a month eating food” lmao 😂 💀

[thegretestman]

Salary is not the only part of a SWE's compensation. Bonuses and stock play a large part here. In fact at senior levels stock given often is much higher than salary and makes up a huge part of their total compensation. Its not uncommon for a senior SWE at companies like Facebook, Google, or Amazon to make 300-400k total compensation.

That number goes even higher for higher level engineers and managers/directors. There are plenty tech companies in the bay area/Seattle that give figures similiar to this. If you want to maximize your earnings as a SWE then going to a tech company in silicon valley is what you'd want to do

[robotjeans]

I'm an American software engineer living in Budapest, although gross is not as high as when I lived in Virginia Beach, my net when taking into account the cheap cost of living puts me way ahead :) Great video

[phoenixswenson]

Another thing to take into account is remote work, if you manage to acquire a remote job from a company in the areas that average six figures, you can work from home and cut the transportation cost of living down by a large percentage. Not only do you land that small perk, you land the much larger one of being able to choose a place with a low cost of living, rent wise. With a remote job you can really experience the benefits of both sides of the coin.

[SilverTheFlame]

I live in Boston and my rent last year was $880/month (I live in a 2 bed with 2 other roommates (so rent was $2350 for us all)). I was astounded at that $3, 000+ price range for a single bedroom apartment in san fran, so I did a search real quick. If you shop for deals and are frugal, you can easily find a $2, 000 *2 bedroom* apartment, or at least much cheaper than $3, 000 for ONE person. Remember, it's not the average/median costs that are representative of actual costs, but rather how you're willing to live and how CONSCIOUS you are about your spending/saving!!!

[sthalgaming]

A lot of the top tier companies offer very generous total compensation packages beyond the "base salary" that I'm not sure your video took into account for. Just doing baseline averages leaves a lot out of the story such as room for growth and what those level hops are to factor into an expected career total. Seattle salaries are heavily dominated by Microsoft and Amazon as well who have pretty consistent comp packages and also have high bars to entry that a lot of average developers out of college likely are not able to meet.

[diegon]

What? 3000 a month on rent? Why?? In mexico its like 600 to 700 an apartment, 3000 gets you a luxury apartment..

[patricknsolo]

i grew really fast watcing your content... Thank you

[adamwalker]

Great video! As a computer science student already living the bay area, all of the jobs are in SF so I will probably be commuting into the city.

[JoeMama-bezb]

I don't plan to make money of this job. I plan to make money from what the job could create.

[natashahanley]

This was very insightful. I'm so glad I live in TX.

[colton]

This video was helpful. Im new to developing and coding and always heard they made good money but never knew the real margins. Keep up the amazing work my dude. And if you ever release like a mentour, coaching program for coding, career adivce, etc. let me know because I'll sign up!

[SeanOchoa]

Another variation between software engineering roles is some of them get paid a lot more, but they've got on-call rotations. Others get lower salaries but they don't have to do on-call work. Something to consider.

[Headboardmoto]

New here! I start in January for my second degree. My first degree is in audio engineering and this next one will be in computer science:)

[eddiejaoude]

It would be interesting to also compare those numbers against Europe too. UK, Germany, Portugal etc