In order to be considered "upper class" in the United States a household of two needs to earn over $102,001, a family of four needs to bring in more than $144,251 and a family of five needs to rake in over $161,277 a year. And in order to earn these six-figure salaries, workers probably need to move to a major city.
Even with unemployment at just 4 percent, workers are still waiting for wage growth across the country but select cities are boasting sky-high salaries.
Job site Ladders analyzed thousands of opportunities across the United States and found that 15 cities stood out for having the most high-paying roles in the month of July. Ladders considered data from opportunities posted in their database.
Here are the 15 cities with the most six-figure jobs:
15. Austin, TX
Jobs available: 5,295
14. Phoenix, AZ
Jobs available: 5,443
13. Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN
Jobs available: 5,879
12. Houston, TX
Jobs available: 6,313
11. Denver, CO
Jobs available: 7,414
10. Philadelphia, PA
Jobs available: 9,712
9. Atlanta, GA
Jobs available: 10,359
8. Dallas, TX
Jobs available: 10,378
7. Seattle, WA
Jobs available: 11,910
6. Chicago, IL
Jobs available: 14,043
5. Los Angeles, CA
Jobs available: 15,438
4. Boston, MA
Jobs available: 16,547
3. Washington, DC
Jobs available: 22,218
2. New York, NY
Jobs available: 30,782
1. San Francisco
Jobs available: 33,062
San Francisco topped Ladders’ list of the cities with the most six-figure roles. Marc Cenedella, CEO and Founder of Ladders says that workers and young people hoping to make over $100,000 cannot afford to overlook the industries that thrive in the City by the Bay.
“The easiest route [to making six figures] is major in computer science or engineering,” Cenedella tells CNBC Make It. “The return on going into tech and being a technologist are extraordinarily high. We’re still only graduating about 40,000 computer science grads in the country and the demand relative to the supply is extraordinarily out of balance.”
New York, Washington D.C., Boston and Los Angeles follow San Francisco to round-out the top five cities with the most job opportunities that pay more than $100,000.
No matter what industry you work in, Cenedella says there are steps that any employee can take to make sure your career is moving in an upward trajectory. He says workers need to meet with their managers regularly and talk about what concrete actions they can take to progress.
Put simply: "Do really well in your job this year," he says. "I know it sounds basic, but the way that you get ahead over the course of your career is to put together a string of great years, a string of great months and a string of great days."
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