Scrum master salary in the US
What scrum masters are paid in the US, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with how your own pay compares. Figures from the BLS OEWS release dated May 2025.
Median annual pay
$102,320
Middle half earn
$78,440 to $133,100
People in this job, US
1,066,670
Pay check
Am I underpaid?
$
Stays in your browser. No account needed.
Project Management Specialists, national, annual pay, May 2025
- 10th percentile
- $61,580
- 25th percentile
- $78,440
- Median
- $102,320
- 75th percentile
- $133,100
- 90th percentile
- $167,970
No dedicated BLS code; scrum masters are counted as project management specialists.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 13-1082. Percentiles across everyone employed in the occupation, not experience levels.
At a glance
What scrum masters earn across the US
- The highest-paying large metros are San Jose, CA ($135,120), San Francisco, CA ($135,040), Seattle, WA ($130,380).
- At the other end are San Juan, PR ($71,740), Louisville/Jefferson County, KY ($82,660), Memphis, TN ($85,130): the top metro's median is 88% higher than the lowest.
- 21 of the 50 metros listed below pay a median above the national figure.
- About 1,066,670 people are employed in this occupation across the US.
- Pay varies widely within the job: the 90th percentile earns 2.7 times the 10th.
Worked from BLS OEWS, May 2025. Not adjusted for the cost of living.
By metro
Scrum master pay by metro
Median annual pay in the largest US metros where BLS published figures for this occupation, highest first, May 2025.
BLS does not count scrum masters separately: they are part of Project Management Specialists, so the metro figures are the same for every title in it. Each metro page covers the whole occupation.
- San Jose, CA$135,120
- San Francisco, CA$135,040
- Seattle, WA$130,380
- Washington, DC$127,030
- New York, NY$126,660
- Sacramento, CA$124,350
- San Diego, CA$117,460
- Denver, CO$116,740
- Boston, MA$114,990
- Portland, OR$108,340
- Los Angeles, CA$108,310
- Hartford, CT$105,720
- Detroit, MI$105,350
- Chicago, IL$105,320
- Charlotte, NC$105,200
- Virginia Beach, VA$104,920
- Providence, RI$104,510
- Philadelphia, PA$104,160
- Baltimore, MD$103,720
- Atlanta, GA$103,400
- Austin, TX$102,390
- Raleigh, NC$102,280
- Richmond, VA$102,170
- Buffalo, NY$101,180
- Kansas City, MO$101,050
- Phoenix, AZ$100,780
- Riverside, CA$100,770
- St. Louis, MO$100,510
- Milwaukee, WI$100,350
- Las Vegas, NV$99,940
- Indianapolis, IN$99,710
- Houston, TX$99,510
- Pittsburgh, PA$99,320
- Jacksonville, FL$99,270
- Dallas, TX$98,900
- Miami, FL$98,720
- Columbus, OH$98,660
- Salt Lake City, UT$98,000
- Minneapolis, MN$97,860
- Tampa, FL$97,780
- Orlando, FL$96,390
- Cincinnati, OH$95,380
- Grand Rapids, MI$95,020
- Cleveland, OH$95,000
- San Antonio, TX$92,130
- Nashville, TN$85,990
- Oklahoma City, OK$85,400
- Memphis, TN$85,130
- Louisville/Jefferson County, KY$82,660
- San Juan, PR$71,740
Medians from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Skills
What employers look for in a scrum master
The skills our scrum master resume example leads with, written for US employers.
- Scrum facilitation
- Sprint planning
- Backlog refinement
- Impediment removal
- Team coaching
- Velocity and flow metrics
- Retrospective facilitation
- Stakeholder management
- Kanban
- SAFe
See the full scrum master resume example, with bullets and keywords.
Negotiating
Using these numbers
Below $78,440 puts you in the bottom quarter for scrum masters in the US. That is worth raising, with evidence of what you deliver.
The median, $102,320, is the middle of the market, not a ceiling. An offer at or near it is a fair starting point to negotiate from.
Asking for $133,100 or more puts you in the top quarter, so it needs a reason an employer will accept: a wider scope, a competing offer, or a skill that is hard to hire for.
Percentiles are not experience levels. They describe everyone doing the job, so a senior hire can sit at the median of a market full of senior people.
About the numbers
What these figures are
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers for its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and these figures are from the release dated May 2025. They cover wage and salary workers in Project Management Specialists, a category that is often broader than a single job title. Self-employed people are not included.
They are base pay: bonuses, equity and overtime are not included, and they are not adjusted for the cost of living.
Questions
Questions about scrum master pay in the US
Know your number? Now get the offer.
Get a free resume score in seconds, read straight from your file.