How common it is to earn six figures as a software engineer in USA?

I get the feeling OP is gonna get flagged or disappear quickly, or maybe even this post will, but yeah, it's common. You can make a lot more if you're deep into your career or go solo/bootstrap/consultant/eat-what-you-kill. That's America in a nutshell after all.

The thing is, $100k in 2001 has the spending power of close to $180k in 2025 -- $100k today is like a $55k salary then.

Hell, it's lost almost a fifth of its value since 2019, and this is if you base it on what the economists say inflation was (many others claim real, actual inflation is ~8% YOY, which would erode that value even more)

Location matters obviously; I know people in Los Angeles carrying $9k, $10k, $11k a month mortgages for nice but modest homes. I have friends paying $7k-$8k a month TO RENT out there! And they're considered middle class lol -- think about that, you'd be on the hook for $96,000 a year just to rent some regular-ass apartment! I can't imagine you could make less than $180k a year ONLY to clear rent, taxes, and afford food and transport.

I'm in the Midwest, a mortgage can cost you from $2k to $5k a month here, local-region dependent. Rent seems to start at $2k a month these days. You can definitely get by with less, but it's still a whole mathematical puzzle to figure out.

I understand European and Eastern Bloc wages are quite a bit lower than ours, and I don't really grasp basic costs over there for how it all works out -- but IMO, in the US, we're all just out here in the proverbial wilderness taking whatever we can get. There's no ceiling to earnings if you're motivated and lucky, but there's no floor either. You have to get up, get out, get what you can get, assume what you got is the last you'll ever get, rinse and repeat, and hope to your deity that things don't dry up.

It sounds like nihilism / pure chaos, but that's the culture we were born into.

Anyways, "big number" is always instantly more attractive to humans for some reason, but as always, the devil is in the details.

For most purposes, what matters is what you earn in comparison to the economy you live in.

For example, if you live in a place where people make $12,000/yr, on average, then earning $24,000 is a nice living. In the US, software engineers often make north of $200k/yr, but a single family home in a lot of US cities is $500-800k, putting a new roof on your house costs $15-40k, and a dinner out at a sit-down restaurant costs $30-60 per person. If you earn $24,000, but it costs $8 to eat out and $80k for a decent house, that's not too shabby.

Where are you located, if you don't mind sharing?

I crossed 100k threshold in 2007, few years out of college. Today I make more than 3x that at a startup, fully remote. I could have another 2x if I wanted to work at FAANG.

The median is something like $130k according to the BLS. So it should be significantly more common than not. I haven't looked at the stats on distribution, but I would guess around 75%+ make six figures. How long current people took to earn that money is not really relevant since inflation would significantly alter that for people starting now. Many new grads seem to make $100k starting or hit that within 3 years. Someone making $75k 10 years ago would need to make $100k now to earn the same value.

In any major city in the US, you should be able to traditionally make six figures within three years at most with maybe a job hop.

This is your standard enterprise company - not even BigTech.

It’s currently a shit show now for anyone trying to get a job in CS with every opening literally getting up to 1000 applications a day.

It's common. Not guaranteed but achievable by most who are reasonably competent and prioritize compensation. Keep in mind however that people spending their spare time on HN are probably not representative of software engineers in general.

My first job out of college (BS CS) a few years ago paid $60k; I got lucky and transferred into ML in 2021 and now make around the median you found (which sounds pretty accurate from my experience).

Software in the US does pay quite well, even accounting for the cost of living, which is high but not exceptionally so - comparable to places like Denmark or Australia. The lack of safety nets is a downside though; you can be fired without cause, warning, or severance, and then you're own your own for healthcare as well.

(Oh and I should add that the tech job market here is currently atrocious. I know several people looking for work and not even getting interviews. Might get better, might not.)

pretty common for senior engineer at a corporate gig

not so common for jr roles / small biz / non-tech companies

I think you can break six figs in pretty much any metro area of US. Might need a couple years of experience in areas with low tech demand, but in major cities (SF, LA, NYC), I would expect the average new grad offer to be right around 100k.

My first job in 2017 was for 130k iirc. I work on ML efficiency. You should check out https://www.levels.fyi/ for more details.

Thank you all for responses.

took me 3 years, started in 1999, was making 6-figure salary in 2002

who ISN'T making $200K+ is a better question