Skip to content

An independent salary reference. Not affiliated with BLS or any U.S. government agency.

Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Software Developers Salary: Greenville, NC vs New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Software Developers earn a median of $107,960 in Greenville, NC and $161,970 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. That is a nominal gap of $54,010 (-33.3%), with New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$107,960
Greenville, NC median
$122,124 after COL
$161,970
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ median
$143,893 after COL
-33.3%
Nominal gap
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads
-15.1%
Adjusted gap
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ pays $54,010 more per year than Greenville, NC for software developers, a gap of +33.3%.

After adjusting for cost of living, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ still comes out ahead, with roughly $21,769 of extra purchasing power (+15.1% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for software developers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Software Developers

Greenville, NC

Median salary
$107,960
Mean salary
$113,070
Employment
270
Location quotient
0.31
Jobs per 1,000
3.3
COL-adjusted median
$122,124
Regional Price Parity
88.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Software Developers page for Greenville, NC →

Software Developers

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Median salary
$161,970
Mean salary
$161,090
Employment
119,610
Location quotient
1.19
Jobs per 1,000
12.8
COL-adjusted median
$143,893
Regional Price Parity
112.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Software Developers page for New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ →

Related pages

Keep digging into software developers from a different angle.

Common questions about this comparison

What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +

It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.

Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +

High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.

What is a location quotient? +

The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a metro specializes in.