I agree with you. Actually, I would guess that it's more like this: Star city (NYC/SV) non-experts: $120k Star city (NYC/SV) experts: $150k Emergin

I agree with you. Actually, I would guess that it's more like this: Star city (NYC/SV) non-experts: $120k Star city (NYC/SV) experts: $150k Emerging (ATX) or second-tier tech-hub non-experts: $80k Emerging or second-tier tech-hub experts: $140k Hinterland non-experts: $50k Hinterland experts: ??? ($100k++ if they can consult and work remotely; no work for them otherwise) Some people are making $180k at a given time, but even great programmers don't have long-term reliable $180k salaries (except as consultants). Right now, your specialty has to be hot (e.g. low-latency C++ in finance) for that. The star cities have a relatively small premium for strong programming skills, for a number of reasons. The cost of living forces up the low end, but there's also a glut of programming talent which leaves it with surprisingly low leverage. Even though talent is still hard to find and rare in the Bay Area (because it's rare everywhere, just less rare there) those companies think they have a lot of talent, because software managers are too unskilled to detect high talent. So that holds the high end back. If VC weren't propping up the Bay Area and the job market weren't so flaccid outside of the VC-funded ecosystem and finance, we'd see a lot of the best programmers leaving for the #3-6 tech hubs and the excellence premium would be more ($60k by the number above, but in a low-COL area and with high autonomy).