Bested by Austin: Seattle ranks No. 3 for tech startup jobs – Puget Sound Business Journal

Seattle was outranked by two cities in this year’s Payscale.com list of hotspots for technology startups.

San Francisco topped the list produced by Seattle-based PayScale Inc    ., thanks to its median tech startup salary of $84,400 and the most startup job opportunities of the 50 cities that were studied.

Austin, Texas, ranked second, narrowly beating Seattle despite a lower median salary: $66,600 compared to Seattle’s $74,900. Austin’s large number of available startup jobs gave it the edge.

Seattle ranked third in the study, and had the third-highest median annual salary. Washington, D.C., had the second-highest median salary, with $75,400, but ranked ninth because it had a relatively low number of available jobs.

Seattle also ranked third in last year’s list, but the median salary here has increased by $3,500 since then, up from $71,400.

Payscale.com created the rankings using its database of salary and career information for the country’s largest metro areas.

Following are this year’s Top 10 cities and their median startup pay. The U.S. median pay is $63,800.

1. San Francisco, $84,400

2. Austin, Texas, $66,600

3. Seattle, $74,900

4. Salt Lake City, Utah, $61,400

5. Denver, Colo., $65,300

6. Boston, Mass., $74,100

7. Raleigh, N.C., $63,900

8. Atlanta, Ga., $64,800

9. Washington D.C., $75,400

10. Los Angeles, $69,000

Seattle-based PayScale Inc., which collects and studies compensation data, announced $7 million in new financing in July, including money from SAP Ventures    , Burke Dale Victor, Fluke Venture Partners    , Madrona Venture Group    , and Trinity Ventures    .

Emily Parkhurst covers technology for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal. She can be reached at 206-876-5441 or eparkhurst@bizjournals.com. Follow her on Twitter: @emilyparkhurst

via Bested by Austin: Seattle ranks No. 3 for tech startup jobs – Puget Sound Business Journal.