The pandemic helped narrow the geographic pay gap for tech workers, Protocol reported May 31.
The pay disparity for senior software engineers in the most and least expensive U.S. cities declined by two-thirds between 2019 and 2021, according to data compensation analyzer Pave.
“There are startups that are applying pricing pressure in this free market, where now you don’t have to be in a seat in the office to get the same amount of output,” Pave co-founder and CEO Matt Schulman told Protocol.
Median engineer pay has risen 17 percent in Minneapolis and 15.2 percent in Dallas since 2019, compared to just 8.9 percent in New York and 7.1 percent in San Francisco, compensation data company Payscale found.
“Companies wanting to stay relevant to top talent are embracing geo-neutral compensation strategies, and the trend is likely to stick,” Julia Dow, vice president of services for compensation intelligence firm OpenComp, told Protocol.