Official pay data
Updated October 15, 2026
Salary guide
Official annual estimates for the whole country, mapped to the closest published occupation.
United States · annual wage estimate
25th percentile
$105,210
Median
$135,980
75th percentile
$171,980
BLS covers wage and salary employees, including part-time workers, but excludes self-employed workers and owners or partners in unincorporated firms. Wages include commissions and production bonuses, but exclude overtime premiums, employer benefits, and non-production bonuses; this is not a base-pay-only or total-compensation measure. Annual wage estimates generally convert hourly rates using a full-time, year-round schedule of 2,080 hours. Actual annual earnings on a shorter schedule can be lower.
This is a country-level occupation benchmark, not a local offer estimate. Pay can differ by location, employer, duties, and working pattern.
Source: BLS, 2025-05-01. Mapped to Software Developers; the occupation is broader than the page role. Figures are estimates, not advertised salaries.
This guide uses the U.S. Software Developers benchmark because Software Engineer is a reported title within that occupational profile. It is useful for comparing national employee pay, but it is not an exact estimate for every software engineering job. Duties, employer, location, and working pattern can differ.
Benchmark fit
Software Engineer appears as a reported title in the U.S. Software Developers profile, so that benchmark provides a useful national comparison. It does not mean every employer using the title has the same responsibilities, specialization, or seniority as the mapped occupation.
The mapped profile supports comparison at the occupation level, not a promise that every Software Engineer position has identical duties or pay.
Role scope
Software engineers design, build, test, maintain, and improve applications, websites, and other software systems. The work combines architecture and implementation with testing, review, documentation, and collaboration.
Design software architecture and system solutions. · Write clean, efficient, maintainable code and add features to existing software. · Test software to find and fix bugs, while checking that applications remain secure and efficient. · Review colleagues' code, maintain documentation, and collaborate with designers, product managers, and other developers.
Working applications, websites, and systems that can be tested and maintained. · In high-integrity engineering work, outputs can include system and software designs, state-machine diagrams, and algorithm specifications and implementations.
Read the range
A role focused on architecture, implementation, testing, code review, and ongoing maintenance fits the benchmark more closely than a job limited to a narrow programming task. A high-integrity assignment may also involve formal designs, algorithms, configured verification tools, and detailed engineering documentation.
One quarter of employees earn below this figure.
Half of employees earn below this figure and half above it; it is not the arithmetic midpoint of the displayed range.
One quarter of employees earn above this figure.
Beyond salary
Compare the offer on the same basis as the benchmark first: fixed wages, any included commissions or production bonuses, expected schedule, and the items excluded from wages. Then review conditional cash and benefits separately so a larger headline figure is not mistaken for guaranteed pay.
Check the guaranteed wage or salary separately from commissions and production bonuses included in the wage measure.
Ask what triggers any bonus or commission, how it is calculated, and whether it is guaranteed. Overtime premiums and non-production bonuses are outside the wage measure.
Confirm hours and the expected working pattern. Annual estimates generally use a full-time, year-round conversion, so a shorter schedule can produce lower actual annual earnings.
Price employer benefits separately, because employer benefits are excluded from the wage measure. Check the terms of any health cover, pension, paid leave, or equity offered.
Employment model
The benchmark covers wage and salary employees, including part-time workers. It excludes self-employed workers and owners or partners in unincorporated firms, so compare it with self-employment or owner income only after accounting for that difference.
Confirm whether the offer is employee pay and what working pattern underlies the annual figure.
Do not treat this benchmark as a direct measure of self-employed income or owner distributions.
Offer review
Questions
Source
Source: BLS, 2025-05-01. The figures cover Software Developers (15-1252) and all employment. Updated October 15, 2026. This broad occupation benchmark may not match every Software Engineer vacancy.
Put the benchmark to work
Use the salary range as context. Tailor your resume around the experience that supports your target level.
