IT salary report shows increased interest in emerging tech hubs
Emerging tech hubs
The Dice 2020 Tech Salary Report showed big salary increases in metro areas like Columbus, St. Louis and Atlanta. Columbus had the biggest growth of 14.2%, which can be credited “A lot of the rust belt has initiatives like this going on where the government gets involved and maybe gives some tax incentives to have a facility somewhere where venture capital can come and invest in things,” said Leon Kappelman, research scientist and professor at the University of Northern Texas. Kappelman co-wrote a 2020 IT trends report for the Society of Information Management which included IT salary trends.
Technologists looking to advance in their careers are interested in these emerging hubs for multiple reasons, according to Kappelman.
“Traditional hubs are very expensive and very high cost of living. Terrible housing shortages in California due to poor land management regulations and things,” Kappelman said. “Housing is very expensive, cost of living is very expensive, taxes are very high so there is a lot of motivation to, not necessarily leave those places, but also to start new companies in [emerging tech hubs] because it is more economical.”
Kappelman also said economic growth has led to increased investments in emerging hubs.
“On the one hand, there is a lot of money swashing around the economy and so there is investment money to invest in new ideas, plus people are a lot more tech-savvy now, so there are a lot of good ideas,” he said. “Look at all of things that didn’t exist five or 10 years ago, like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash.”