It's All About Location

The difference in the cost of living from one geographic location to another is a major factor in compensation for every type of employment. Help authoring appears to be no exception with average annual salaries varying significantly depending on where we choose to live and work. The two states that host the greatest concentrations of high technology companies, California and Massachusetts, provide the highest salaries. Californians earn 26% more than the overall Help developer salary of $57,000.

According to the DataMasters Cost of Living Analysis, earning $72,000 in San Jose is equivalent to earning $65,000 in Seattle. Yet from the WinWriters Salary Survey, Seattle lags California by $16,000. Either the Californians are overpaid or those in Washington are getting shorted. Other states, such as Georgia, enjoy a positive advantage. Again using DataMasters, an average salary of $67,000 in Boston should equate to $53,000 in Atlanta. But the WinWriters Salary Survey shows the Peach State beats the cost of living difference by $6,000.

Location and Salary

Here are the average salaries we found for some other locations:

   • Illinois — $54,000
   • Pennsylvania and Florida — $53,000
   • Minnesota and Michigan — $51,000
   • Utah — $50,000
   • Ohio and Missouri — $49,000
   • Arizona — $47,000
   • Other than U.S./Canada — $44,000
   • Ontario, Canada — $39,000

An interesting resource for comparing the cost of living between different cities or states is available from DataMasters at http://www.datamasters.com/cgi-bin/col.pl.