End of Year
Pay Report 2020

Levels.fyi's annual report for software engineering compensation. See top paying companies, locations & trends.

🎙 A Note from the Founders

We started Levels.fyi in 2017 with a mission to help people make better career decisions. To date, we've collected the most accurate public data on salaries, benefits, leveling, and more. This year alone, we have more than doubled our salary dataset and have over 50,000 data points spread across over 1,200 cities around the world.

Thank you to the tens of thousands of you who've contributed and empowered hundreds of thousands of job seekers. If you haven't yet, please take 2 minutes to add your salary, benefits or leveling and spread the word. The following report examines data we've collected this year and dives into compensation at companies by level and location.

Founders Signature

— Zuhayeer and Zaheer



💸  Top Pay by Level

The Levels.fyi Standard is a leveling hierarchy we've abstracted from company-specific names to make aggregation easier. Click through the tabs below to view up to 7 top paying companies by level from 2020. View the compensation for all companies here.


🌎 Top Pay by Location

We crunched the numbers across the United States and internationally and found the following cities to have the highest median pay. Click on a state or country for available compensation information.

Top US Metros
RankLocationMedian Pay
1San Francisco Bay Area, CA

$232,000

2Seattle, WA

$197,000

3New York, NY

$182,000

4Los Angeles, CA

$175,000

5Pittsburgh, PA

$174,000

6San Diego, CA

$160,000

7Boston, MA

$155,000

7Baltimore, MD

$155,000

8Austin, TX

$148,000

9Portland, OR

$142,000

10Denver, CO

$140,000

Top International Cities
RankLocationMedian Pay
1Zurich, Switzerland

$211,000

2Tel Aviv, Israel

$159,000

3Vancouver, Canada

$133,000

4London, United Kingdom

$133,000

4Amsterdam, Netherlands

$130,000

5Sydney, Australia

$118,000

6Tokyo, Japan

$115,000

7Munich, Germany

$113,000

8Dublin, Ireland

$109,000

9Toronto, Canada

$108,000

10Beijing, China

$100,000


🏁  Year in Review

Since we started Levels.fyi, users have often reached out on how they can turn the data and tools we offer into actionable next steps. Late this year we introduced the first of many initiatives to tangibly help professionals level up their career. Levels.fyi's Negotiation Service pairs you with recruiters that previously worked at the companies you're applying to. Our team knows how compensation and negotiation works from the inside. It's exhilarating to see the difference this is making in people's lives and we couldn't be more excited to make a bigger dent in the next year.

Hiring took a sharp turn in March due to COVID-19 but we've seen it steadily recover. Although many have lost jobs, we've also noticed that pay has been steady and even continued to increase. Several companies have gone permanently remote or have relocated their headquarters and we expect this trend to continue. Most companies are adjusting pay by location (as was also done prior to this recent wave). The rise of remote expands the pool of talent that companies have access to and also allows candidates to reach more companies. We suspect 2020 will have a longer term impact on compensation – the jury's still out on what exactly it'll shape up to be. Many compensation professionals themselves are struggling on if and how to adjust.

Although it's been a difficult year, we've been heads down on building. Here are some of our highlights for this year:

🚀  What's Next

We recognize that we have much to do in broadening our data set across more roles, sectors and geographies. Each of these has their own nuances and we're focused on providing the best experience regardless of your background. Our work here will continue and we hope to accelerate it with our expanded team. Our Negotiation service is just the start of how we can help professionals achieve better outcomes for their goals – look out for more updates on this front over the next few months.

As we've grown, we came to realize that we've been nurturing a budding community – something we hope to build more rails for to help folks connect and help each other. We've built all of our products on the pillars of customer feedback. If you have an idea or suggestion, we'd love to hear from you (we read every email)!

A big thank you to all of our users who continue to support us! We look forward to serving you even better in 2021!

How can I contribute?

We're only as good as the data we collect. Contribute through the links below and help us spread the word so we can create even richer tools for you and the community.

  1. Submit leveling information for your company
  2. Add your compensation anonymously
  3. Add benefits at your company
  4. Email us any other feedback!

  Get updates on salary trends, career tips, and more.

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