Software Engineer salary in Massachusetts

Official occupation: 15-1252 Software Developers · Reference period May 2025 · Data updated · Confidence 95/100

In Massachusetts, the median software engineer earns $165,210 a year, 21% above the United States median of $135,980.

It ranks 4th of 50 states with a published figure.

Pay is relatively compressed, with the 10th percentile at $102,810 and the 90th at $213,970 (a ratio of 2.1).

Massachusetts has 48,190 of these jobs, a location quotient of 1.22: the role is 22% more concentrated here than nationally.

For context, the median across all occupations in Massachusetts is $63,590, so this role pays 2.6 times the local typical wage.

Published figures

Published and derived pay figures
MeasureMassachusettsNational
Median annual pay Observed$165,210United States: $135,980
Mean annual pay Observed$161,730United States: $148,100
10th percentile Observed$102,810United States: $82,460
25th percentile Observed$131,370United States: $105,210
75th percentile Observed$190,280United States: $171,980
90th percentile Observed$213,970United States: $214,670
Median hourly pay Observed$79.43United States: $65.38
Employment (jobs) Observed48,190
Jobs per 1,000 employees Observed13.247
Location quotient Observed1.22
Difference from United States median ($135,980) Derived+21%
Rank among 50 states Derived4
Ratio to Massachusetts all-occupation median ($63,590) Derived2.60×
90th / 10th percentile ratio Derived2.08

Nearby in the ranking

  1. 2. Washington$166,540
  2. 3. New York$166,180
  3. 4. Massachusetts$165,210
  4. 5. Oregon$142,720
  5. 6. New Hampshire$139,720

Largest cities in Massachusetts: Boston, South Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell (GeoNames). Figures are for the whole state, not individual cities.

More pay data

Source, method and data quality

  • Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 (Public domain (U.S. Government work)). Reference period: May 2025. Updates: Yearly (spring release).
  • Observed figures are copied from the published table without adjustment. Derived figures (rankings, ratios and differences) are calculated by us from those observed figures. No figure on this page is modeled or estimated.
  • Relative standard error (PRSE) published per estimate.
  • Confidence score: 95/100. Based on the published sampling error and job count. We only publish region pages scoring 60 or more that have at least 6 observed figures.
  • Place hierarchy from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Data last updated: .
  • Full method: methodology.