Side by side

Chicago vs Seattle

Seattle pays more: a median of $101,500 against $87,000. There is 2.4× more demand for Chicago. Listings for Chicago move faster — median age 41 days against 49.

Comparison

Side by side

MeasureChicagoSeattleGap
Open postings49,12820,711+28,417
Posted this week1,288530
Median salary$87,000$101,500$-14.5k
25th percentile$68.5k$80k
75th percentile$108k$126k
Salary disclosed8.7%5.4%
Remote share9.1%10.3%-1.2pp
Median age of posting41d49d
Open over 60 days46.2%37.4%
Visa sponsorship10.4%24.7%
Pay

Pay distribution

Chicago

$39k$151k

Seattle

$46k$176k
Freshness

How old the listings are

Chicago

just posted41d median90d+

Seattle

just posted49d median90d+
Demand

What each side asks for

Chicago — technologies

Go
72.0%
Azure
65.8%
GCP
59.6%
HubSpot
53.4%
Terraform
47.2%
Kotlin
41.0%
Java
34.8%

Seattle — technologies

JavaScript
72.0%
AWS
65.8%
Azure
59.6%
Snowflake
53.4%
React
47.2%
Salesforce
41.0%
Python
34.8%

Chicago — employers

Pinewood Education
9.4%
Brightline Retail
8.7%
Northwind Systems
8.0%
Lakeshore Hospitality
7.2%
Halcyon Energy
6.5%
Beacon Robotics
5.8%
Ironbark Manufacturing
5.1%

Seattle — employers

Cobalt Financial
9.4%
Halcyon Energy
8.7%
Vantage Logistics
8.0%
Brightline Retail
7.2%
Kestrel Health
6.5%
Aperture Labs
5.8%
Meridian Software
5.1%

Track this slice

A weekly note when openings, pay or freshness move for Chicago vs Seattle.

More comparisons

Other United States city comparisons

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.