# What is a typical salary of someone with a Computer Science Degree? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292 "2013-01-25T04:47:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/1 "2013-01-25T04:47:13Z")
I’ve seen so many different numbers on this. How much could a person earn with a CS degree? I’ve seen numbers ranging from 45K - 90K. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/2 "2013-01-25T04:50:30Z")
I have a CS degree and have worked as a software developer for several years. I started out pretty low (but above minimum wage), and was able to make about 45k within 2 years, 65k in 3 years, and 80k in 6 years. This is in a major US metro area. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/3 "2013-01-25T05:24:35Z")
It is all over the place. What I’ve seen lately are starting salaries for recent grads mostly in the range of 45 to 60K. But it goes well above that in certain circumstances, usually when the new hire demonstrated productive ability before graduating. Some companies are looser with the purse strings too. I can’t say I know of actual cases, but I do hear of recent grads getting 70 to 90K starting salaries, but I find that strange for hiring an unknown quantity. However, once hired, you are generally limited by the success of the company you work for, and the sub-industry you work in. The top end of salary can be very high, but that will be based on performance, not the type of degree you have. Also, post graduate degrees are worth a lot more at some companies. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/4 "2013-01-25T05:29:02Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I can’t say I know of actual cases, but I do hear of recent grads getting 70 to 90K starting salaries, but I find that strange for hiring an unknown quantity. They are kind of a self-selecting group, though. Grads who did internships or co-ops are much more likely to be hired in the first place, often by the same company with which they interned. And in those cases, the companies are already familiar with the grad’s work-product and ethic. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/5 "2013-01-25T05:33:24Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > They are kind of a self-selecting group, though. Grads who did internships or co-ops are much more likely to be hired in the first place, often by the same company with which they interned. And in those cases, the companies are already familiar with the grad’s work-product and ethic. Well yeah. That’s why I mentioned the productive ability part. Dumb decisions are made everyday, but hiring someone with no experience above the typical salary range is a large value of dumb. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/6 "2013-01-25T14:30:22Z")
As mentioned above, it greatly depends on where you’re working. Working in Wyoming, I could see a starting salary in the $40s. Working in the Bay Area or NYC, I would expect more like $80k or $90k. For your less popular but still large cities, probably something in the $60s. My first job out of college was $65k, back in 2007. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/7 "2013-01-25T14:43:58Z")
[**64K**](http://www.naceweb.org/uploadedFiles/NACEWeb/Research/Salary_Survey/Reports/SS_Jan2013_ExecSummary.pdf)per January 2013 survey by National Association of Colleges and Employers. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/8 "2013-01-25T16:56:30Z")
Oh, and software development effort is infamously nonlinear. Good luck finding a part time job as a software developer to put you through grad school. There aren’t any part time programmer jobs out there. If you are working 3 hours a day there’s not much you can actually _accomplish_ due to communication bottlenecks and constantly changing priorities and expectations. It’s not like a carpenter job where for any X \> 0 you can cut wood for X hours and be paid for X hours of cutting wood. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/9 "2013-01-25T19:03:41Z")
I tend to think that the computing industry (software development, IT, etc…) tend to have a pay curve that levels out fast- people may get hired at 45k, and be making 80 after 6 years, but they may never actually break 90, even if they work another 40 years. That seems to be the case among people of my acquaintance- we all seem to have leveled out somewhat in that 70-90 range pretty fast, but to get above that, you have to end up in fairly senior management, which may not be where most computing types want to go. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/10 "2013-01-25T19:34:39Z")
In my company, the top people who just do programming probably make around $110k. Some people make more than that, but they aren’t really programmers and have moved into more being team leaders and architects. New hires probably come in around $60k Your ability to move up with a CS degree is highly dependent on your ability to be valuable to the company. If you’re just a regular DB programmer just like all the others, don’t expect to make the high salaries. But if you tackle the big problems, come up with innovative solutions, and deliver products with high reliability, you will rise to the top. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-typical-salary-of-someone-with-a-computer-science-degree/648292/11 "2013-01-25T20:13:37Z")
What part of the country is that in?