You are right, I'm almost certainly exhibiting selection bias. As we all know, the best jobs don't even go on the wider market, such as jobs sites, but are fill

You are right, I'm almost certainly exhibiting selection bias. As we all know, the best jobs don't even go on the wider market, such as jobs sites, but are filled by word of mouth referrals, or conversations at events. But if I go and search: http://www.technojobs.co.uk/search.phtml?page=2&row_offset=10&keywords=senior%20developer&salary=0&jobtype=all&postedwithin=all http://www.technojobs.co.uk/search.phtml?page=2&row_offs... You will see most senior dev roles advertised with a range, that seems to average out about £45k. That's for the whole country, and London seems no different. Personal experience with London based recruiters was that despite jobs advertising £60k, the number that the recruiter had from the client was actually lower. When asked about the requirements for getting the top end of the pay scale, "Well, they really only want to pay low 40's", was something I heard time and time again, and caused me to not apply, time and time again. Crappy jobs? Maybe. EDIT: Also, I've seen an expensive corporate salary survey (shh, don't tell HR), and whilst London mid-senior people have seen a good bump to their salary in the last 2-3 years, the averages there were approx: junior ~£28k, mid-level ~£36k, senior ~£47k, architect ~£60k, dev lead ~£72k).