There's a difference between average and high-end: Washington D.C. Avg Software Engineer salary: 102k http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-l-Washin

There's a difference between average and high-end: Washington D.C. Avg Software Engineer salary: 102k http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-l-Washington,-DC.html http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-l-Washingto... Bay Area Avg Software Engineer salary: 113k http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-Bay-Area-l-San-Jose,-CA.html http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-Bay-Area-l-... Except none of my friends in the bay area make that little. In fact, few of my friends in their late 20s are making under $200k a year in terms of what they write on their tax returns (total compensation package). Your experience and the "average" typically are not comparable.