SEATTLE – “If you’re a whiz at writing code or a super-smart network systems analyst, which town is a hotbed for startup companies offering the most job opportunities and bucks for your talents?” said PayScale Inc. about its IT Startup Salary Hotspots list published on Jan. 27.
According to the list of select U.S. cities, San Francisco – not surprisingly – is the No. 1 high-tech hotspot for startup jobs.
PayScale calculated the ratio of IT workers at related startup companies relative to the all workers in a city and the typical pay for those workers, and calculated a score that weighted both of those factors. PayScale looked at “tech-heavy” towns – Boston, Austin – and metro areas, such as New York, Dallas and Chicago.
San Francisco employs more than double the national average of IT startup workers and offers pay more than one-third higher than the U.S. average.
Trailing the City by the Bay were Austin, Texas; Seattle; Salt Lake City; Boston, Washington, D.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Atlanta; Chicago; New York City; Philadelphia and Dallas.
Boston earned an overall score of 1.76 for a median pay of $72,700 and a jobs ratio of 1.55; New York City had a ratio of 0.90 jobs ratio and a median pay of $70,600.
In San Francisco, IT professionals at startups earned a median pay of $87,100, while the lowest-median wage was in Philadelphia – which placed 11th out of 12 – at $61,400.
The organization also outlined four factors to consider before running off to Seattle, San Francisco or Austin:
- Cost of living.
- Willingness to take a pay cut to work at a particular company or in a certain town.
- Other compensation factors that go beyond your base salary (i.e. stock options).
- Strong belief in the company’s product.
