Side-by-side distribution
C / C++
$193,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 31%
- Live roles
- 387
Java
$132,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 15%
- Live roles
- 788
Highest-paying jobs
C Developer
Software Engineer - Training/Inference (C++)
Software Engineer - Network (C++)
Software Engineer - Platform Infrastructure (Rust, C++)
Software Engineer - Kernels/CUDA (C++)
Software Engineer, C++
Principal Engine Programmer - Systems (C++)
Principal Core Systems Software Engineer - Game Engine (C++)
Staff Software Engineer, Logging (C++)
Senior Software Engineer, C++ (Market Data)
Highest-paying jobs
Lead Java Developer
Senior Java Engineer
Senior Backend Engineer (Java)
Senior Backend Engineer (Java)
Senior Software Engineer, Java
Senior Software Engineer, Java
Software Engineer 2 - AWS/Hadoop/Accumulo/Terraform/Python/Java
Software Engineer 3- Python/Kotlin/Java/Terraform/ElasticSearch/OpenSearch/AWS
Software Engineer 2 (Hybrid) - Java/MapReduce/Accumulo/Hadoop
Software Engineer 2 - Java/MapReduce/Cloud/GhostMachine/QTA
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 16 |
Applied Intuition
|
$170,500 | 14 |
|
Roblox
|
$218,940 | 9 |
Esri
|
$134,264 | 8 |
Stevens Capital Management LP
|
$225,000 | 5 |
|
xAI
|
$310,000 | 4 |
| FT Flow Traders | $233,750 | 4 |
|
Aurora Innovation
|
$222,000 | 3 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 24 |
Elastic
|
$118,060 | 18 |
Referral Board
|
$118,411 | 10 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$138,100 | 4 |
Bloomreach
|
$56,441 | 4 |
|
Moniepoint
|
$520,000 | 3 |
SentinelOne
|
$180,550 | 3 |
| CA Capco | $95,057 | 3 |
Java salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | $200,000 | 7 |
| New York | $187,500 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $122,500 | 3 |
| Toronto | $101,279 | 4 |
C / C++ vs Java: which pays more?
The median for C / C++ is $193,000 per year (typically $156,450–$222,000), versus $132,750 for Java ($99,443–$200,000). That puts C / C++ about 45% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so C / C++ and Java 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.