The Average Tech Worker Now Makes $291,497 In San Mateo County
Tech is already known for having some of the highest wages of any American industry. But they continue climbing to new heights. Just south of San Francisco, in San Mateo county, home of Menlo Park and Redwood City, the average tech worker earned $291,497 in 2013.
They have Mark Zuckeberg to thank for $80,000 of that. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, if you remove the $3.3 billion in stock Mark Zuckerberg sold in 2013, San Mateo's average then falls to approximately $210,000.
However, the upwards trend is being seen across the Bay Area, regardless of Zuckerberg's stock sale:
The average annual wage for high-tech workers in San Francisco rose to $156,518 in 2013, up almost 19 percent from the year before. That ranked the city No. 1 for high-tech wage growth out of 34 markets nationwide, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data crunched by JLL, a commercial real estate services firm.
San Francisco's 18.9 percent tech wage growth far outpaces the 4.6 percent increase all Bay Area workers have seen in the past 12 months. And these figures, which include stock options, benefits, and perks including provided meals, will continue to climb as founders and employees cash out their stock. As the Chronicle noted, most Twitter employees' stock options were locked from sale until 2014, meaning these numbers are expected to be even higher this year.