How Much Do Data Practitioners Get Paid?
Geographic salary variation driven by population density and cost of living.
This story argues that salary differences are mainly the result of a combination of cost of living and population density effects. The later slides test that claim step by step, first by establishing a role baseline and then by showing how geography changes the pattern.
Location matters: density and cost of living drive salary differences.
Data Practitioner salaries vary dramatically across geographies. This analysis tracks how compensation correlates with cost of living (COLA) and population density. Remote work, treated separately, offers an interesting baseline for comparison.
We start with role baseline pay, then reveal how location type (urban high-COLA vs. rural low-COLA) reshapes the salary story, including direct scatter analysis of COLA and density effects.