Software Developers Labor Cost in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
In the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metro area (an OEWS metropolitan statistical area, not municipal city limits), the median hourly wage for Software Developers (SOC 15-1252) was $80.42 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS); the middle half of workers earned between $63.85 and $101.86 an hour.
Wage snapshot
OFFICIAL · BLS OEWSLow · P25
$63.85
Hourly
Typical · Median
$80.42
Primary planning wage
High · P75
$101.86
Hourly
Calculator
Adjust schedule assumptions. Wage percentiles stay OFFICIAL; annual outputs are DERIVED from your USER_INPUT.
Estimated annual team wage cost · DERIVED
$167,274
Wages only — benefits and payroll taxes are excluded.
Based on median BLS hourly wage $80.42 · schedule defaults 1 × 40 × 52
Low (P25)
$63.85
—
—
Typical (Median)
$80.42
Annual / worker: $167,274
Team total shown above
High (P75)
$101.86
—
—
Official data summary
- OEWS geography
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- Geography type
- metro · area 0042660
- Occupation
- Software Developers (15-1252)
- Data year
- 2025
- Employment (OFFICIAL)
- 92,770
- Wage value class
- OFFICIAL
| UI label | OEWS basis | Hourly (OFFICIAL) | Annual OEWS (OFFICIAL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | P25 | $63.85 | $132,800 |
| Typical | Median | $80.42 | $167,280 |
| High | P75 | $101.86 | $211,860 |
Annual values are not interchangeable
- OEWS annual median (OFFICIAL):$167,280 — published by BLS for this occupation and area.
- Schedule-derived annual typical (DERIVED):$167,274 —
hourly median × 40 × 52from USER_INPUT schedule defaults. Do not treat this as a replacement for the OEWS annual median.
How this estimate is calculated
DERIVED- Low / Typical / High map to OEWS hourlyP25 / Median / P75(OFFICIAL). This is a transparent percentile mapping, not a confidence interval.
- Calculator annual figures are DERIVED:
hourly × hours/week × weeks/year, then × headcount for team cost. - Hours/week, weeks/year, and headcount are USER_INPUT(defaults 40 × 52 × 1).
- OEWS wages exclude overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and employer benefit costs. Self-employed workers are excluded.
Data source
OFFICIAL- Publisher
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Dataset
- OEWS
- Occupation / SOC
- Software Developers / 15-1252
- Geography
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- Data year
- 2025
- Reference period
- May 2025
- Source URL
- https://www.bls.gov/oes/ (oesm25ma.zip bulk (MSA_M2025_dl.xlsx))
- Verification / retrieval
- 2026-09-23T05:36:04Z
- Content hash / version
cc3e6fa80edf64ab· oews-bulk-cc3e6fa80edf- Data version
oews-may-2025