Tech workers say salaries have not kept pace with inflation

Most technology professionals say their pay isn't keeping up with inflation, raising pressure on employers to meet growing demand for remote work. 

Some 82% of employees living close to their place of work and 64.5% of remote workers noted a squeeze on their salaries, even as average pay in the industry increased from last year, according to a report from Hired, a marketplace for tech jobs. In the US, salaries rose 3.2% to $159,000. 

The worst bout of inflation in the US for a generation has so far failed to derail the job market, bolstering workers' power to demand remote or hybrid setups. Almost everyone surveyed by Hired said they'd start looking for a job immediately if they were denied an expected raise in the next six months. 

"Expectations on salary, pay raises, and work flexibility remain sky high, placing the onus on employers to execute the right strategies to attract, hire, and retain top talent," Josh Brenner, chief executive officer of Hired, said in the report published Tuesday. 

Salaries for remote jobs are up $3,000 on average from a year earlier and are exceeding local pay in some cities -- for instance, in Chicago the gap is 6.2%. London proved to be an outlier, as local workers earn 3.6% more than remote employees.

Workers fleeing high-cost areas are driving up pay outside of the nation's biggest tech hubs. Philadelphia saw the highest average increase, at 11.9%, while Dallas was second at 11.3%. 

The country's two centers of the industry both recovered from last year's decline in average pay. The San Francisco Bay Area rose 3.7% to $174,063, the highest in the country, and New York gained 4.8%. 

Hired surveyed more than 2,000 tech professionals from January 2019 to June 2022.