Last year TOTSB looked at tech worker pay in “How Crain’s Chicago Got Tech Worker Pay Wrong.” That post was response to a misleading story that Crain’s Chicago business published that bemoaned how Chicago tech workers’ pay was not as high as other US cities, claiming “Tech talent is in high demand in Chicago these days, and pay is going up. Unfortunately it still lags what techies make in many other big cities…”  DICE salary data was referenced which lent credence to the argument being made.

The problem with this narrative it is wrong-minded and very misleading. So far, no retraction from the author or publisher. The fact is that when compared to NYC and Silicon Valley pay and when just looking at the DICE raw numbers, it appears that workers are better off in those markets because the pay is higher.

Although this is true in Nominal Dollars, reality is different as each area has different costs of living for the same goods and services, e.g. housing, groceries, utilities and so on. Often used for analysis of inflation over time, this kind of method is referred to as Real and Nominal Value.

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With that in mind, the data was updated with 2013 salaries expanding the number of cities reviewed from 10 to 31 US Cities. Of course, it tells a very different story from what Crain’s Chicago Business had suggested last year.

Some interesting highlights of the data:

• Texas cities Houston, Dallas and Austin are some of the best deals for workers with Charlotte, NC and Atlanta also looking good (left-most on graph)
• NYC and Silicon Valley are absolutely the worse deal for workers (right most on graph)
• Chicago (my current home base) looks good better than the usual suspects, but it is well below mean and median, i.e. in comparison to many other US cities, which may have something to do with Illinois, Cook County and Chicago financial shenanigans.
• Mean and Median were close at $80,345 and $79,050 respectively
• Quality of living arguments can be inserted at this point (cold winters) as well as the impact of high-taxes on local economy

Rank	Market Area	Local Avg	Index	Real Dollars	Comments
1	Houston	$92,475	92.2	$               100,298
2	Dallas	$89,952	91.9	$                 97,880
3	Charlotte	$90,352	93.2	$                 96,944
4	Austin	$91,994	95.5	$                 96,329
5	Atlanta	$90,474	95.6	$                 94,638
6	Denver	$93,195	103.2	$                 90,305
7	Cincinnati	$83,537	93.8	$                 89,059
8	Raleigh	$85,559	98.2	$                 87,127
9	Tampa	$80,273	92.4	$                 86,876
10	Phoenix	$87,114	100.7	$                 86,508
11	St. Louis	$76,220	90.4	$                 84,314
12	Columbus	$76,035	92.0	$                 82,647
13	Detroit	$81,832	99.4	$                 82,326
14	Orlando	$79,805	97.8	$                 81,600
15	Kansas City	$77,329	97.8	$                 79,069
16	Cleveland	$79,840	101.0	$                 79,050
17	Minneapolis	$87,227	111.0	$                 78,583
18	Seattle	$95,048	121.4	$                 78,293
19	Portland	$84,295	111.3	$                 75,737
20	Baltimore + DC	$97,588	129.8	$                 75,212	avg
21	Pittsburgh	$68,100	91.5	$                 74,426
22	Miami	$78,872	106.0	$                 74,408
23	Chicago	$86,574	116.5	$                 74,312
24	Sacramento	$85,100	116.2	$                 73,236
25	Philadelphia	$92,138	126.5	$                 72,836
26	Hartford	$87,265	121.8	$                 71,646
27	Boston	$94,531	132.5	$                 71,344
28	LA	$95,815	136.4	$                 70,246
29	San Diego	$90,849	132.3	$                 68,669
30	SV	$108,603	164.0	$                 66,221
31	NYC	$93,915	185.8	$                 50,546	3 borough avg
	Mean	$87,158	$111	$80,345
	Median	$87,227	$101	$79,050
	Mode	#N/A	97.8	#N/A
	Max	$108,603	$186	$100,298
	Min	$68,100	$90	$50,546
	Std Dev	$8,052	$22	$10,837

SOURCES: DICE US Salary Survey 2013 and US City Cost of Living (Infoplease).