Nope, not low at all. In the Midwest that’s exceedingly normal, even for non-entry level. $70k a year is living good in the Midwest, especially if dual income household ($140k a year is plenty when a decent house goes for $300k).

Fair enough, 55k would’ve seemed pretty low to me in the NE for a fresh dev. Not 75k though.

55k is low for a dev, but not for a ton of other office/administrative roles that are threatened by AI automation.

This is extremely regional dependent. Please don’t think 70K is living large across the majority of the Midwest, it is not.

It might not be living large, but it's a very comfortable income for a single person in pretty much the whole region.

I think they're generalizing beyond software engineers with what they're saying. G&A, Marketing, etc roles pay significantly less than software engineers and that $55-75k figure is realistic in lower cost of living areas. Even in Colorado, which the Denver Metro Area is HCOL, there are companies (smaller, regional, not national/global) still offering that level of salary.

Yeah that would make more sense. Though it seems to me AI is currently better at reducing dev headcount than most other roles.

Yeah, correct, I wasn't thinking of devs specifically, more other office/administrative roles threatened by automation. Even where I live in a relatively HCOL area, any non-dev office role you can still expect to see a$65-$80k salary range, and $80k is pushing toward the top end for non tech roles.

Depending on industry and public versus private here, that $80k+ barrier for non-tech is mostly management positions.