California vs Seattle

Put two roles head to head — any role, in any location or worldwide-remote.

Side A

Side B

Seattle pays about 16% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

California Seattle
$155k
$180k
$41.7k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $311.6k

California

$155,000

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -11.4%
$175,000 $155,000
$100k 25th
$155k Median
$200k 75th
$60.3k
$247.5k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5.3k – $5,000k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
73.5%
Live roles
13,968

Seattle

$180,000

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -6.7%
$193,000 $180,000
$132.5k 25th
$180k Median
$226.6k 75th
$81.5k
$293k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5.3k – $3,000k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
77.6%
Live roles
3,337

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Anduril Industries $170,000 1,236
Databricks $216,104 282
Relativity Space $165,000 231
NoGigiddy $43,680 200
Cheer Home Care $44,720 178
Revolution Medicines $209,500 165
Archer $171,100 153
ALO $79,588 144

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Fluidstack $217,500 251
Brex $216,000 146
Anthropic $362,500 120
Anduril Industries $193,000 120
DoorDash USA $161,300 112
OpenAI $307,500 74
AX Axon $184,421 62
DigitalOcean $189,000 54

Highest-paying roles in California

Role Median Roles
DevOps $185,925 241
Software Engineer $185,750 2,514
Recruiter $181,500 1,005
Data Scientist $177,151 168
Product Manager $170,000 1,563
Customer Success $169,000 1,938
UX Designer $168,475 34
Sales $150,000 2,086
Project Manager $148,000 939
Marketing Manager $137,838 682

Highest-paying roles in Seattle

Role Median Roles
Software Engineer $207,500 830
Data Scientist $193,375 66
DevOps $192,750 82
UX Designer $180,000 29
Sales $180,000 724
Product Manager $176,400 613
Recruiter $168,935 321
Customer Success $167,500 634
Project Manager $160,000 219
Marketing Manager $148,482 247

California vs Seattle: which pays more?

The median for California is $155,000 per year (typically $100,000–$200,000), versus $180,000 for Seattle ($132,500–$226,563). That puts Seattle about 16% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so California and Seattle are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.

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