Six-Figure Silicon Valley
In Silicon Valley, annual tech salaries topped six figures for the first time since the survey began about a decade ago. The highest in the nation, Silicon Valley’s annual salary of $104,195, increased five percent year/year. In addition, bonuses are both fatter and more frequent in Silicon Valley – with 38 percent of tech professionals receiving bonuses at an average of $12,450.
While the Valley’s resurgence is well documented, other tech markets did exceptionally well too. In fact, 12 of the top 20 cities for tech jobs had above average wage growth. The largest: Austin, Texas with a 13 percent jump in pay to average $89,419. Portland, Oregon showed an annual wage increase of 12 percent to $82,055; Houston saw seven percent growth ($89,307); and Washington D.C. experienced nearly six percent growth ($94,317).
Chicago and Seattle each garnered five percent increases in average tech salaries, Denver and Dallas/Ft. Worth managed four percent growth, while New York, Los Angeles and Raleigh, North Carolina each increased three percent.
“Conventional wisdom says that as Silicon Valley goes, so goes the tech world. That’s true, and Silicon Valley is going well, but it doesn’t tell the entire story when it comes to tech employment,” added Mr. Silver. “Nationally, we’re seeing stiffer competition and higher salaries for tech pros with the right skill sets and the right experience level.”
Difference Makers: Skills and Experience
While salaries are on the rise among technology professionals, entry-level salaries continue to be pushed downward, according to the survey. The professionals who generally saw their wages increase were those with 11 or more years of experience in their field.
The skills that commanded six-figure salaries and had above average year/year growth are:
|
2011 Average Salary |
Yr/Yr Growth |
| ABAP – Advanced Business Application Programming |
$109,157 |
3% |
| SOA -Service Oriented Architecture |
$108,210 |
6% |
| ETL – Extract Transform and Load |
$106,521 |
6% |
| Weblogic |
$103,702 |
5% |
| JDBC-Java Database Connectivity |
$102,630 |
5% |
| UML-Unified Modeling Language |
$102,579 |
6% |
| JBoss |
$102,184 |
5% |
| WebSphere |
$100,348 |
7% |
“This looks like a push towards enterprise java — with WebSphere, JBoss and WebLogic showing outsized gains,” said Alice Hill, Managing Director, Dice.com. “Not to mention, a continuation of the trends we’ve seen toward tech professionals helping their companies gain more insight into their cost structures, customer behavior and emerging trends. If tech professionals spark companies to win by harnessing their data, that’s when the tech department is no longer seen as a cost center, but a strategic partner in meeting companies’ goals.”
This is another data point that Silicon Valley is recovering better than the rest of the country. The compensation levels will translate into further improvements of real estate markets. The competition for the most desirable locations like Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View will get even more fierce than what we were observing over the course of 2011. If you are thinking about selling your home, there is no reason to wait. Low inventories and dramatic improvements in job market coupled with record low interest rates will enable you to get top dollar for your property here in the Valley.
