If your company is looking to hire a back end developer, then you need to know how much compensation to pay out each month for their services.
Choosing the right tech stack and finding skilled developers is crucial for any project, especially when it comes to back end development. It might be invisible to users, but in fact, back end development is the backbone of any app.
Essentially, back end developers are responsible for developing allserver-side logic, maintaining databases, and managing the interchange of data between the server and the users.
Usually, developers who work back end, find that their salary is higher than that of a front-end developer, but the risk and effort associated with their job seems to be higher as well. That’s precisely why hiring a back end developer can be challenging. In order to become competitive and land top talent, recruiters should become familiar with the salary for that role and the factors that influence it.
To give you a full understanding of the subject, we’ve put together up-to-date, industry-specific data on back end developer salaries across the US.
The average back end developer salary in the US
As already mentioned, back end developers have a lot of important responsibilities and employers in every tech company are always on the hunt for those developers who can bring lots of talent to the table, sometimes, no matter the cost.
To make the server, application, and database communicate with one another, back end developers use programming languages such as PHP, Ruby, Python or Java to develop the product, and tools like MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server to find, save, or change data and serve it to the user.
The exact tasks a back end developer will perform depend mostly on the level of experience, as well as their knowledge and skills. The location in which they are based and their employer’s requirements also affect the average salary.
According to PayScale, the average base salary for a developer in the United States is relatively low: $69,766 per year.
Currency: USD | Updated: 28 Mar 2019 | Individuals Reporting: 53
On the other hand, the average back end developer salary reported by ZipRecruiter is much higher: $96,468/year.
Currency: USD | Updated: 22 Apr 2019 | Individual data sources: –
Yet again, higher salaries are presented by Glassdoor, namely: $117,284 per year on average.
Currency: USD | Updated: 12 Jun 2019 | Individuals Reporting: 169
Nonetheless, the highest salaries can be found on Indeed.com, where the average annual pay for a back end developer in the US equals $124,948.
Currency: USD | Updated: 10 Jun 2019 | Individual data sources: 3,317
Back-end developer salary
It is clear to see that the average salary of back end developers varies depending on the data source. The lower range of salary is $69,766, and an upper salary range quoted by Indeed.com is $124,948.
Experience
It shouldn’t be surprising that salaries fluctuate depending on the level of experience and the level of job position the developer is applying for. Sometimes resulting in wide salary ranges, but not always.
According to PayScale, for example, an average base salary for an entry-level back end developer stands at $65,000 (bonuses and overtime pay). A back end engineer, early in their career, with 1-4 years of on-the-job experience, on the other hand, can count on an average total compensation of $69,766. Interestingly, back end developers with 5-9 years of experience are said to earn $69,800 on average, which doesn’t seem like a big difference.
However ZipRecruiter usually reports higher numbers, and there the average entry-level back end developer salary is: $79,881 a year.
ZipRecruiter usually reports higher numbers, and the case of the average entry-level back end developer salary is no different: $79,881 a year.
Location: Average back end developer salary in NYC, SF, and others
Location is another important factor that affects back end developer salaries. According to PayScale, when hiring back end developers in the US, San Francisco and Chicago are among the highest paying cities. San Francisco offers an above-average pay rate for back end engineers: 28% higher than the national average reported by this source, while Chicago offers (+19%) and Boston (6%). The lowest-paying city seems to be Orlando – where the developer salary is 29% lower than the average for the same job.
According to Indeed.com, however, the higher pay is dished out by companies in Mountain View, at $170,536 per year. New York, San Francisco, and Boston also offer more money than the developer salaries elsewhere. The average back end developer salary in NYC stands at $132,337 a year, while developers working for companies in SF and Boston can expect to receive approximately $145,000 per year on average.
Other factors increasing pay
There’s no doubt that the level of experience and location affect the average salary of a back end developer, but possessing the right knowledge and skills also has a huge influence on how much compensation they can expect.
Both mobile and web back end development requires the use of a database and some kind of “action” to retrieve and add data to it. The difference is that back end web developers can work directly with the database via an Object Relationship Manager (ORM), which comes with most web frameworks that help to tie client and server-side. Mobile back end developers have to work at a higher level of abstraction, using an Application Programming Interface (“API”). Therefore, skills sets and salaries can differ as well. For example, the average back end web developer salary amounts to $75,487 a year, while back end mobile developers can expect the average pay to be a much higher number, around $117,284, according to Glassdoor.
Popular skills
The programming language you specialize in, as well as the role, can be a big contributor to how much compensation developers can expect from their employers. Certain technologies will be more in-demand than others and will attract a higher developer salary.
Skills in JavaScript, for instance, correlate to higher than average pay. Whereas skills that are less in-demand and therefore less than the market rate include Java, Python, Node.js, and PHP.
Useful additional skills
Other skills that positively affect back end developer salaries are:
- Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills
- Analytical skills
- Attention to detail
- Soft skills, such as effective communication, ability to work independently and excellent time management
Conclusion
Back end developers are responsible for making sure that everything works well “behind the scenes”, which is why it’s important that companies seek out the best talent. As you can see, there are multiple factors that can influence the salary, and therefore, the cost of hiring a developer can fluctuate too. Before starting the recruitment process, make sure you’re familiar with these factors and average developer salaries in the US to offer competitive pay and attract the best developers for the job.
Before you go
We also have other great resources devoted to a software developer salary, such as:
- Complete Python developer salary data
- Complete Java developer salary data
- Complete front end developer salary data
Image source: Alexiuz AS
