National Startup Pay Varies Significantly From San Francisco

Should startup employees be paid equally regardless of location?

As of now, there is no national market for startup employee pay. Two engineers doing identical work will get paid different rates based on where they live.

At the later stages of our prior startup boom (say mid-2021), more companies dabbled in unifying pay across the country. But the tech downturn put an end to that experiment. Today 85% of companies using Carta Total Compensation adjust pay by location.

So - what is the going rate in markets across the US?

We took our annual spin through the 54 largest startup markets and calculated the average compensation rate. We chose to express this as a percentage of the top market (as usual, that top market is San Francisco).

For example: Seattle has a 97% because the average pay for a Seattle startup employee is 97% of what that person would make if she moved to SF and did the same job.

Each analyzed metro area has a dot in the map below and the color coding means:

• White dot: market pays equal to SF

• Blue dot: market pays between 90-99% of SF

• Yellow dot: market pays between 80-89% of SF

• Green dot: market pays between 70-79% of SF

Note - this analysis simply reflects current compensation rates. It does not include any information on cost of living. It is very possible that once you account for CoL, these rates might normalize or even flip, with expensive cities outweighing higher comp rates. That's for a future graphic!

𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀

• There are only 3 "top" markets in US startups these days for pay: San Francisco, San Jose, and NYC.

• The next up are Seattle, Stamford CT, DC, and Boston (all at least 93% of SF).

• The Midwest census region does not have any metro paying 90% or more of SF rates. However, many cities in the Midwest did have pay move closer to SF over the past year.

• The Northeast cities also made gains on the top markets this year (average of 2.5% closer).

• The South was a mixed picture, with 10 cities gaining and 7 cities losing ground to the top market rate.

• After a period of rapid change due mostly to the pandemic and resulting WFH shifts, pay rates across the country seem to have stabilized relative to one another over the past year. The average change was much lower than 2022 to 2023.

Give me a shout in the comments if you want to know the rate for your city!

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