Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers salaries
What software quality assurance analysts and testers earn nationwide, from US Department of Labor payroll data covering 186,740 people in the occupation.
What the role earns
Half of software quality assurance analysts and testers nationwide earn between $80,310 and $133,180, with a median of $104,300. Bureau of Labor Statistics — employer-reported payroll, 186,740 employed nationwide · OEWS-May2025.
What sponsored roles attest
Employers sponsoring H-1B workers for this role formally committed to a median of $111,587 ($96,852–$131,749), across 7,114 certified filings in 42 states · FY2026-Q2. A narrow slice of employers rather than the market — the note at the foot of this page says who is in it — and it runs 7% above the earnings median above.
Pay by area
The 12 highest-paying of 70 areas — the rest are in the table below. Bars span the 25th–75th percentile.
Every area we can publish
The 70 metro areas where at least 100 people work in this occupation, the federal estimate is solid enough to publish, and we track hiring locally — so each page can say something about the market and not only the wage. Each has its own page.
| Area | 25th | Median | 75th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $123,680 | $166,530 | $184,230 | 6,480 |
| Boulder, CO | $102,550 | $136,410 | $166,120 | 500 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $97,320 | $134,630 | $168,050 | 5,880 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $99,990 | $130,540 | $159,140 | 11,460 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $102,070 | $129,880 | $160,700 | 2,670 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $98,410 | $129,690 | $168,210 | 6,650 |
| Colorado Springs, CO | $96,360 | $128,520 | $149,640 | 610 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $99,410 | $126,350 | $149,370 | 8,460 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $95,800 | $123,690 | $140,930 | 3,620 |
| Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | $85,330 | $122,980 | $137,550 | 950 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $79,640 | $122,210 | $142,720 | 6,050 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $83,360 | $122,210 | $150,020 | 7,200 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $87,000 | $120,210 | $142,230 | 2,280 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | $86,710 | $110,800 | $135,910 | 1,760 |
| Albuquerque, NM | $81,360 | $108,230 | $130,640 | 230 |
| Richmond, VA | $90,780 | $106,300 | $129,200 | 720 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $82,610 | $105,970 | $130,720 | 720 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $82,850 | $105,800 | $126,620 | 5,270 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $83,080 | $105,720 | $131,650 | 450 |
| Huntsville, AL | $90,020 | $105,610 | $134,280 | 850 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $83,310 | $105,580 | $130,920 | 5,010 |
| Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | $83,940 | $105,270 | $127,790 | 160 |
| Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL | $81,870 | $105,000 | $133,230 | 460 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $78,030 | $104,410 | $132,280 | 930 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | $77,610 | $104,250 | $124,260 | 1,940 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $81,980 | $103,210 | $127,610 | 8,840 |
| Columbus, OH | $82,070 | $103,110 | $122,000 | 780 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | $82,510 | $103,070 | $130,680 | 3,340 |
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | $89,860 | $102,750 | $131,350 | 440 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $81,360 | $102,740 | $129,130 | 2,650 |
| Ogden, UT | $76,990 | $102,540 | $133,590 | 200 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $82,490 | $102,390 | $130,220 | 2,140 |
| Cleveland, OH | $80,930 | $102,190 | $104,520 | 1,440 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $81,830 | $102,130 | $128,680 | 2,190 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | $77,320 | $102,090 | $130,260 | 220 |
| Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY | $75,250 | $101,880 | $126,170 | 340 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $76,660 | $100,740 | $123,470 | 3,160 |
| Trenton-Princeton, NJ | $83,820 | $100,710 | $130,230 | 450 |
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | $81,120 | $100,690 | $126,340 | 430 |
| Tucson, AZ | $91,320 | $100,650 | $126,250 | 430 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $71,540 | $100,050 | $128,220 | 1,960 |
| Omaha, NE-IA | $79,430 | $99,580 | $120,310 | 800 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | $77,820 | $98,870 | $125,930 | 1,930 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $70,890 | $98,690 | $126,360 | 2,420 |
| Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | $78,560 | $98,190 | $106,790 | 440 |
| Madison, WI | $73,540 | $97,840 | $139,460 | 1,470 |
| Rochester, NY | $80,290 | $97,840 | $110,290 | 490 |
| Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | $74,350 | $97,390 | $122,460 | 790 |
| Ann Arbor, MI | $64,390 | $97,250 | $106,590 | 260 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $78,500 | $97,030 | $114,240 | 1,060 |
| Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC | $69,350 | $96,960 | $110,600 | 210 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $62,820 | $96,160 | $126,210 | 510 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | $76,350 | $95,990 | $119,250 | 1,010 |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | $74,980 | $94,970 | $106,170 | 1,430 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $73,790 | $94,590 | $126,280 | 1,360 |
| Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $75,950 | $93,510 | $110,000 | 990 |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | $78,930 | $91,040 | $101,430 | 170 |
| Tallahassee, FL | $62,370 | $90,040 | $117,290 | 170 |
| Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | $74,610 | $87,940 | $108,020 | 920 |
| Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA | $67,210 | $87,270 | $119,190 | 170 |
| Columbia, SC | $75,520 | $86,320 | $104,540 | 250 |
| Knoxville, TN | $75,230 | $85,970 | $96,380 | 220 |
| Cedar Rapids, IA | $75,870 | $84,270 | $103,230 | 110 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | $61,530 | $82,940 | $106,170 | 1,610 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $66,380 | $82,900 | $105,120 | 830 |
| Birmingham, AL | $72,380 | $82,060 | $102,950 | 360 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $74,250 | $81,990 | $124,200 | 3,900 |
| Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT | $60,530 | $79,180 | $102,230 | 600 |
| Lansing-East Lansing, MI | $59,780 | $77,950 | $100,260 | 200 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | $60,940 | $77,700 | $96,090 | 1,120 |
Where these numbers come from
The pay figures on this page come from the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics wage series — payroll figures employers report from their own records, covering everyone working in the occupation rather than only those who happen to answer a poll. Nobody self-reported them, and no salary here was submitted by the person earning it.
What that does and does not tell you. These are earnings of people already in the job, not the pay advertised on current openings — and advertised pay tends to run above them. It is a sample of employers, not a count of all of them, so every figure is an estimate. The number beside each band is how many people work in the occupation in that area: it says how substantial the local workforce is, not how many employers were surveyed. And BLS publishes no margin of error for the percentiles — only for the employment count — so treat the median as a solid central figure rather than a precise one.
Where the second band comes from. Some pages also show what employers formally attest they will pay a sponsored worker, from H-1B Labor Condition Application disclosures. Those are real, filed, public wages and the employer is legally bound by them — but the population is only employers who sponsor work visas, which is neither everyone hiring for the role nor a random sample of them. Sponsorship concentrates in large, well-paying technology employers and in IT staffing firms that file toward the lower end, and we have not measured which effect wins. So it sits beside the earnings band, never averaged into it: there is no meaningful figure halfway between what a role pays and what a visa filing committed to.
What we deliberately do not show. Any area with fewer than 100 people in the occupation, or where the estimate is too thinly sampled to stand behind (current data: OEWS-May2025). And any trend or year-on-year change: we hold a single release, and drawing a line through one point would be inventing a finding. When a second lands the trend appears here, and not before.
This covers the pay figures on this page. For the postings, the AI extraction and the market estimates — and the full list of things we deliberately do not claim — see our methodology.