Those salaries seem low for mid sized cities even no?

Nope, not low at all. In the Midwest that’s exceedingly normal, even for non-entry level. $70k a year is living good in the Midwest, especially if dual income household ($140k a year is plenty when a decent house goes for $300k).

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jtmarl1n an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This is extremely regional dependent. Please don’t think 70K is living large across the majority of the Midwest, it is not.

	▲	SR2Z an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It might not be living large, but it's a very comfortable income for a single person in pretty much the whole region.

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davkan an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Fair enough, 55k would’ve seemed pretty low to me in the NE for a fresh dev. Not 75k though.

	▲	thewebguyd an hour ago \| parent [-]
		55k IS low for a dev, but not for a ton of other office/administrative roles that are threatened by AI automation.

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Spartan-S63 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think they're generalizing beyond software engineers with what they're saying. G&A, Marketing, etc roles pay significantly less than software engineers and that $55-75k figure is realistic in lower cost of living areas. Even in Colorado, which the Denver Metro Area is HCOL, there are companies (smaller, regional, not national/global) still offering that level of salary.

	▲	thewebguyd an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, correct, I wasn't thinking of devs specifically, more other office/administrative roles threatened by automation. Even where I live in a relatively HCOL area, any non-dev office role you can still expect to see a$65-$80k salary range, and $80k is pushing toward the top end for non tech roles.
	▲	davkan 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yeah that would make more sense. Though it seems to me AI is currently better at reducing dev headcount than most other roles.