Across every posting in this dataset that states a remote flag, remote roles carry a median midpoint of $190,781 against $204,000 for roles that are tied to an office — a gap of $13,219, or 6.5% below the office figure. That single number is the one most people quote, and it is the one most likely to mislead you, because the discount is not uniform: it is a blend of functions that pay remote workers more and functions that pay them materially less.
| Role family | Remote n | Remote median | Office n | Office median | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| security | 100 | $216,902 | 231 | $197,500 | +19,402 (+9.8%) |
| sales | 340 | $175,000 | 899 | $159,950 | +15,050 (+9.4%) |
| product | 166 | $222,465 | 382 | $225,425 | -2,960 (-1.3%) |
| marketing | 137 | $180,000 | 382 | $193,675 | -13,675 (-7.1%) |
| engineering | 561 | $212,000 | 1,640 | $226,000 | -14,000 (-6.2%) |
| support / ops | 385 | $153,318 | 830 | $168,301 | -14,983 (-8.9%) |
| finance / legal | 183 | $181,022 | 548 | $200,975 | -19,953 (-9.9%) |
| data / ml | 88 | $206,000 | 278 | $250,000 | -44,000 (-17.6%) |
| other | 234 | $150,800 | 446 | $200,000 | -49,200 (-24.6%) |
Two families pay a remote premium in this snapshot: security (+9.8%) and sales (+9.4%). Both are functions where the hiring pool is thin and geography matters least — a security engineer or an enterprise seller can be sourced anywhere and the company competes on the number, not the office. At the other end, data and ML shows the steepest remote discount (-17.6%): those postings cluster in a few expensive metros, and the remote-labelled versions of the same roles are frequently a level below the on-site ones.
The practical reading: "remote pays less" is true of the dataset average and false of several specific markets. If you are negotiating, the number that matters is the one for your role family, not the headline.
Related: role families ranked · location bands · the dataset.
A longer read: Remote work is not one pay discount on dev.to.