How Much Does a Coder Make a Year?

You’ve made a decision. You want to change careers and become a programmer. You know that programmers get to rise to challenges and work on captivating problems that require troubleshooting and analytical skills. Even better, programmers are in increasingly high demand by employers. You know everything about your dream career except how much you can expect to earn as a software developer. How much does a coder make a year?

Wonder no longer, my friends. We dug into the U.S. News and World Report and put together this article to help you find out how much a software developer makes. You’ll learn about starting salaries and find out how much the more senior programmers earn on average. We also look at the different coder salaries by specialty and sector. When you finish this guide, you’ll have the facts and can move forward with your dreams.

Starting and Senior Coder Salaries

Your coder salary will depend greatly on your experience. Folks who are just getting started in programming will take home less than their senior counterparts, although even the junior coder make good money. A starting coder can plan on making between $62,000 and $82,000 at their first gig, but those numbers are subject to regional change. For example, a San Francisco coder makes a lot more than an Austin coder, even though the extra pay goes toward the higher cost of living in the Bay Area.

A senior programmer who has a few jobs under his or her belt will bring home a nice chunk of change. Folks with extensive programming experience will make between $106,000 and $145,000 on average. Again, this amount is partially dependent on your location, so if you live in an area with a lower cost of living, you might make much less than a San Francisco programmer but bring home more money each paycheck.

Coder Salaries by Specialization

Not all coder salaries are identical across the board. Your take-home pay will hinge not only on your time as a coder but on your specialization. Software developers work on a huge range of devices and platforms, and some jobs are more in demand than others. If you’re hoping to make as much money as possible in your coding career, take a few minutes to review the average coder salaries by specialty.

ERP technical developers are favorite selections for employers today; if you have an ERP technical development specialization, you’ll make about $114,500 on average. Business systems management specialists are hot commodities, too. They command salaries of about $93,250. The best-paying developer gigs, though? They go to mobile applications developers. A mobile applications developer makes, on average, $143,000 a year. Not too shabby, right?

That’s the whole deal, pals of mine. If you’re looking to get into the programming game, you should get to know what to expect in the way of pay. We developed this article to help you with that and to get you familiar with starting salaries, senior pay rates, and the best-paying coding specializations. Now that we’ve armed you with all of this knowledge, you should be ready to take the leap and get your coding career going.