After failing to convince a friend that his statement of “earning potential in the pure computer field in Dutchess county is around $27-30K at best” was both baseless, and entirely made up, I started trying to find some real data on what the answer was.  The fact that I just posted about the need for Data literacy made the event that much more ironic.

Along the way I found the Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation’s economic report.  It’s quite interesting, and gives a rather extensive set of data about the county, including housing and employment statistics.  Most of the data looks to be from 2008, though there are comments about updates in 2009.

And, at least a partial answer was found to the first question, on page 6 of the report, in the Representative Median Salaries 2008 section:

Computer Programmer – $82,690
Network Administrator – $61,210