Top 13 Highest Paying Cities for Sales Jobs 2022

a year ago   •   7 min read

By Bravado Staff

Bravado shares the best cities for maximizing your pay in sales.

Highest Paying Cities for Sales Jobs Chart 2022

The U.S. job market is the ripest it's ever been for salespeople, according to the Wall Street Journal, with several companies failing to fill enough seats on the sales floor. If you’re entertaining a move into the sales profession or you’re looking to switch companies, at some point you’ve probably wondered, “Does the city I work out of affect how much I will be paid?”, or “Will I make more money if I relocate to that company’s New York City or San Francisco office since the cost of living in these cities is much higher?”

Bravado ran through over 10,000 compensation data points and we were able to determine that a salesperson's city has an enormous impact on all aspects of their compensation plan, from base salary to signing bonus and stock grants.

Therefore, make sure that if you take a role in a city with a high cost of living, that your compensation plan accurately reflects the increased cost of daily life. Regardless, you don’t need to worry too much about that potentially difficult conversation with your employer, as our compensation data shows most companies accommodate each cities’ respective cost of living to start with.

Here are the 13 Highest Paying Cities for Sales Jobs in 2022

To normalize the rankings, this list is based on the highest average total compensation for B2B SaaS/Tech Account Executives by city. We only incorporated cities in the United States for this study. The statistics about the open jobs come from LinkedIn and the cost of living ranking data is from Expatistan.

1. New York City

  • Total Compensation: $206,979
  • Base salary: $104,626
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $93,320
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $10,003
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 53%

New York City tops our 2022 list of highest paying cities for sales jobs with an impressive $206,979 average annual total compensation package for Account Executives.

The high compensation comes at a price, however, as the Big Apple has the second highest cost of living in North America.

Beyond the compensation package, New York City is ringing with sales jobs, with an estimated 54,634 open positions. A couple of the top rated tech companies headquartered in New York City include MongoDB and Datadog.

2. Washington DC

  • Total Compensation: $199,501
  • Base salary: $97,711
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $87,276
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $14,514
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 51%

Washington DC comes in second on our ranking of highest paying cities for sales professionals, thanks to a near $200k average annual total compensation package.

Like NYC, DC’s hefty compensation also comes with a high cost of living, which Expatistan ranked number three for most costly cities in North America.

Washington DC, however, has no shortage of sales jobs, as LinkedIn shows 44,054 open spots. Some of the top employers for sales in DC include Amazon Web Services and Cvent.

2. Washington DC

  • Total Compensation: $199,501
  • Base salary: $97,711
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $87,276
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $14,514
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 51%

Washington DC comes in second on our ranking of highest paying cities for sales professionals, thanks to a near $200k average annual total compensation package.

Like NYC, DC’s hefty compensation also comes with a high cost of living, which Expatistan ranked number three for most costly cities in North America.

Washington DC, however, has no shortage of sales jobs, as LinkedIn shows 44,054 open spots. Some of the top employers for sales in DC include Amazon Web Services and Cvent.

3. San Francisco

  • Total Compensation: $194,498
  • Base salary: $95,741
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $85,862
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $12,895
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 57%

San Francisco, with an average total compensation at $194,498 for B2B Account Execs, fills the third spot on our list.

The Bay Area, despite having only the third highest compensation average, has the highest overall cost of living out of any city in the US.

It probably comes at no surprise that the tech hub of the United states has over 50,000 open sales jobs currently. The best of the best employers in San Francisco include Splunk and Google Cloud.

4. Boston

  • Total Compensation: $180,998
  • Base salary: $87,511
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $84,168
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $9,319
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 50%

There is a $14,000 plus difference between third place San Francisco and fourth place Boston, which sports a $180,998 average compensation plan package.

Boston has the fifth highest cost of living out of all US-based based cities.

Boston could see a boom in salaries and available jobs as the area is seeing explosive growth recently in the startup industry, per Techcrunch.

Like the other cities on this list, Boston has an abundance of jobs, with over 27,607 open sales roles as of right now. If you’re lucky, you’ll land a job at one of the renowned Boston tech companies HubSpot or LogMeIn.

5. Minneapolis

  • Total Compensation: $178,775
  • Base salary: $87,487
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $85,455
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $5,813
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 42%

Minneapolis, an up and coming tech city in the US, gets fifth on the highest paying cities for sales jobs list, with a $178,775 average compensation package for Account Executives.

Minneapolis has a decent cost of living relative to the other cities on this list, as it ranks as the 17th most expensive city to live in.

Minneapolis has no sales job shortage, as LinkedIn reports over 17,800 sales jobs up for grabs. The top places to work at in Minneapolis include Jamf and Ceridian.

6. Chicago

  • Total Compensation: $178,485
  • Base salary: $88,579
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $82,418
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $7,489
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 48%

Chicago scores the six place spot on our list for highest paying sales cities, as the Windy City flaunts a nearly $180,000 total compensation package average.

Although the high compensation might make Chicago’s cost of living easy to overlook, it should be noted that it does have the ninth highest overall cost of living in the US.

Chicago’s job market is on fire, however, with a reported 34,332 sales jobs available. Many of the top salespeople in Chicago can be found working at the Chicago-based Cision and Groupon.

7. Los Angeles

  • Total Compensation: $177,328
  • Base salary: $89,072
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $78,225
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $10,032
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 53%

Sunny Los Angeles comes in at the middle of our list in 7th place, with a $177,328 total compensation package average.

Los Angeles is not cheap however - it ranks as the fourth most expensive city to work and play in.

Despite the cost of living, you should be able to find a job in sales quite easily thanks to the surplus of available positions, which is estimated at around 33,329. The best sellers will be seen working at the LA-based Cloudkitchens or the social media tycoon TikTok.

8. Seattle

  • Total Compensation: $175,076
  • Base salary: $89,025
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $69,752
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $16,299
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 69%

$175,076 is the average total compensation package average for Seattle based B2B Saas/Tech Account Executives. This puts them in the eighth slot on our list.

Although their total compensation average is not the highest, they do have the highest percent of reps hitting quota out of any city on this list, meaning the gross earning potential at the end of the fiscal year could top any city on this list.

Seattle’s roaring tech economy has led to drastic cost of living increases recently, as they have the seventh priciest living conditions in the US.

However, the tech economy has brought numerous jobs to the rainy city, with 20,883 waiting to be filled. Seattle’s finest salespeople can be found dialing at Microsoft or Amazon.

9. Atlanta

  • Total Compensation: $170,259
  • Base salary: $82,941
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $78,204
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $9,114
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 54%

Atlanta Account Executives enjoy the ninth highest average total compensation, a cool $170,259, compared to all other US-based cities.

The cost of living in Atlanta makes it a very attractive city when considering the above average pay. The city’s cost of living is only the 22nd priciest in the United States.

There is a massive amount of jobs, too. LinkedIn lists over 25,000 open sales jobs in the ATL. SalesLoft and Terminus are two premier tech companies based in Atlanta that are hiring now.

10. San Diego

  • Total Compensation: $169,483
  • Base salary: $85,259
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $80,627
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $3,596
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 47%

San Diego, with a $169,483 total compensation package average, rounds out the top 10 of the highest paying cities for sales jobs.

Like the other California cities on this list, San Diego has an exorbitant cost of living. It specifically is the eighth priciest American city to live in and doesn't look to be getting any cheaper either.

San Diego, although not necessarily a tech hub, does have over 11,000 open sales jobs. Some top companies in San Diego for sales reps include Tealium and GoSite.

11. Denver

  • Total Compensation: $163,120
  • Base salary: $81,095
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $71,905
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $10,120
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 57%

Denver’s $160,000+ total compensation package average propels them into 11th place on our highest paying sales cities list.

Denver’s 11th place compensation ranking is coupled with an 11th place cost of living ranking.

Like most high paying, expensive cities, Denver has quite a few sales jobs open, with an estimated 21,000+ as of today. Arrow Electronics and HomeAdvisor are a couple big name companies sales reps hustle to work at.

12. Dallas

  • Total Compensation: $158,121
  • Base salary: $80,331
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $71,796
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $5,993
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 62%

Dallas, at number 12, is the last city on our list with an average compensation package above $158,121 for B2B tech sales account executives.

Despite the reputation of Texas being affordable, Dallas is still quite expensive, as it ranks as the fifteenth most costly North American city to live in per Expatistan.

Like most cities in Texas, Dallas is full of jobs - LinkedIn reports over 30,000 sales positions currently up for grabs. If you can afford to be picky, Bravado recommends taking a look at selling for Active Network or Stackpath.

13. Austin

  • Total Compensation: $154,496
  • Base salary: $75,879
  • Commission at 100% of Quota: $74,585
  • Signing + Stock Bonus ($ Value / Year): $4,032
  • Reps Hitting Quota: 53%

Last but not least, Austin reps the thirteenth highest paid B2B Tech Account Executives in the US. The average comp package comes in just shy of $155k, at $154,496.

Austin’s cost of living might take some by surprise, as it ranks sixteenth overall on the list of most expensive North American cities to live in.

Regardless, you currently won’t have much of an issue finding a job that will help pay the bills, as the rapidly growing tech hub has roughly 18,000 sales jobs available. The best of the best in Austin can be found chasing deals at the tech giants Oracle or Dell.


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