You say 7-8 years experience. That's quite good for less than 10 years experience. Salaries inflate with more experience and more value added. Here's my thoughts:
Over time, your salary will go up. The data you're getting may be from those with 15 years experience or more.
Increase your contribution - Get more stuff done in less time. Do things that help your org that you weren't asked to do. Be available during off hours if a problem comes up. Help enable others to be more productive - this is a big one that makes you a key asset to your org. One guy is relatively easy to replace, but the guy that enables a team is invaluable. Make sure your efforts are noticed, but don't be obnoxious about it. You want to be the person everyone goes to with questions. If you find you're spending more time helping others than doing your own work, you're doing it right.
Move - many large, multi-site companies have different salary ranges for different geographical areas. Like you already mentioned, getting the bigger salary is likely not worth the increased cost of living. I think for the US, you're best value is being in the lowest paid geographical area (where you are now).
I have mainly held jobs that have been more than the years required for... my entire career. It's an odd industry, or I have been lucky (or uncommonly good at my job?) Ultimately, if it takes until I have 15 years of experience, that's fine but I will probably be FIRE shortly after (9-11 years out assuming I don't learn to live with less and I am working on that, and my wifes or my income does not go up at all)
I don't THINK MN is a "low" paid market, it's probably middle of the road but people PROBABLY make more money here than on the coasts, all said and done. It's a decent sized tech hub with many high-profile HQs (medical/bestbuy/target/USBANK, ect ect)
Great insight! I generally have been a tech/team lead developer for the past 3 years, helping the team succeed is one of my every-day main goals at work. Which probably is why I am where I am at, at the age of 26.
(My motivation for this post is more or less a double check that I am not missing something obvious, some 'clear-to-others' path that I have been working to hard to see)
I know this isn't the topic of this thread...but making 170-200k for years, with a $700 mortgage...you should be able to reach FI a hell of a lot faster than 9-11 years. If that's your goal, it may be worth posting a case study.
I moved to the NYC area to break 100k (infrastructure/IT) - doubling my salary while retaining my old COL would make me FI ridiculously quickly.
Yes, I do want to avoid getting off-topic. Though I will entertain this.
Our spending is 55-60 a year, and it is going to be coming down a bit with time. I really only started making this amount 2-3 years ago and went from 0-invested to 225k invested over 24-30months. Shooting for 1.5-1.625 million while saving 80-100k a year is how I came up with 9-11 years. (my wife makes 40k a year, so we net 135-145 a year total - (55/60) gives us that 80-100 saved)
Now clearly, a number of things will/could happen.
-I will hopefully cut spending closer to 45-50k bringing my number down to 1.25m, while increasing my savings yearly up another 10k.
Time to FIRE with this, assuming I consistently can do it, is closer to 7 years.
-I could hit a few clients that need tons of hours worked, saving all of it. If, I could repeat 2015, year over year, that would cut 2 years give-or-take. 2016 will be lower than 2015 for me.
-I could hit a dry spell and be out of work (unlikely) for a period, increasing time to FIRE.