New salary data from job placement site Hired. Despite layoffs and hiring freezes, salaries continue to climb. From Axios:
Salary offers for candidates in the San Francisco Bay Area remain the nation’s highest at an average of $174,063, followed by Seattle ($168,069) and New York ($161,128).
However, salaries in mid-size markets are catching up with the larger tech markets. The highest pay growth rates were in Philadelphia (up 12%), Dallas/Fort Worth (up 11%), and Denver (up 11%).
And in 15 out of 17 markets, the salaries for remote workers actually outpace those for workers hired locally.
Bit more detail there — remote roles paying $3,000 more on average globally in 2022. Average remote salaries climbed to $162,950 this year, ranking third highest overall in the report after the San Francisco Bay Area and New York average local salaries.
And, Surveyed tech candidates’ most compelling benefits from 2021 to 2022 remained the same — flexible work, paid time off, and health insurance benefits — but this year, candidates are willing to trade a higher salary for practical benefits (health insurance and 401K retirement matching) versus stock/equity in 2021, according to the report.
That remote working benefit is a competitive edge. Candidates showed an increased preference for remote-only roles, with 32% of all active job seekers open to “only remote” roles on the Hired platform as of June 2022, up from 18% in January 2022.
Why do we care?
No matter the noise around hiring, the market is tight and challenging. I often quip that if providers spent as much time on their labor and employee management as they did on tools, they would be dramatically more successful. With labor the top expense line item for IT services companies, managing this is vital.
There’s a leveling going on here – and to the detriment of rural and smaller market employers. “working remotely” is the third best salary group, which should worry small market employers if they aren’t compensating. Cheaper in the smaller market is going away.