Main image of article U.S. Tech Salaries Map 2018

Although tech-industry unemployment remains low, and salaries for specialized skills such as artificial intelligence (A.I.) have risen to stratospheric heights, salaries as a whole for tech professionals in the U.S. were flat in 2017, according to the latest Dice Salary Survey. (The survey was administered online by Dice.com, with 10,705 employed technology professionals responding between October 18, 2017 and December 13, 2017.)

Tech pros’ average annual pay hit $92,712, a very slight 0.7 percent increase from 2016. Things were a bit sunnier for contractors, who saw their average rates rise a full five percent, to $72.32 per hour. And as with past Salary Surveys, certain tech skills earned their practitioners much more than the average:

“There’s a perception that the technology field is the Wild West with outsized compensation and lavish perks. While not true across the board, salaries for skills where employers have to compete for a limited supply do come with a premium,” Michael Durney, President and CEO of DHI Group (Dice’s parent company), wrote in a statement accompanying these results. “This disconnect is partly what creates frustration among employers or tech pros when the recruiting process yields a gap between salary expectations and true market trends.”