An Overview of American Programmer Salaries - June 11, 2008, 1:22 PM [Source: www.birdpig.com] The Unix Geek used the job and salary search engine indeed.com to compile statistics on the salaries programmers in the U.S. can earn based on their expertise in different programming languages and operating systems. He analyzed 18 programming languages, 4 operating systems, and 7 APIs.