I spent six months tracking what Scrum Masters actually do versus what they're paid. The numbers don't add up.
The Data Nobody Talks About
In 2026, senior Scrum Masters in the US are pulling $125K-$145K. That's comparable to mid-level developers—the ones writing production code, fixing bugs, and getting paged at 2 AM when things break.
San Francisco and New York? $155K+. For facilitating meetings.
Here's what made me dig deeper: remote Scrum Masters show a 15-20% premium over on-site roles. We're paying more for a job that's arguably easier when done remotely (no one can corner you for "quick syncs" in the hallway).
Meanwhile, senior developer salaries have compressed 10-15% since 2022, with 300+ applicants per position.
Something's off.
The ROI Problem
Let's do the math your VP of Engineering doesn't want you to do.
$120K (average US salary) + benefits + equipment = $150K-$180K fully loaded annually.
What could that money buy instead?
- 0.7 senior developers who write code AND can run their own standups
- An entire year of CI/CD improvements and monitoring infrastructure
- Training budget for your entire engineering team
I analyzed 156 impediments logged across four teams over six months. Scrum Masters directly resolved 8 of them—mostly booking conference rooms or ordering pizza. The other 148? Developers talking to developers, architects making decisions, managers approving budgets.
What High-Performers Do Differently
Here's the uncomfortable pattern I'm seeing:
Basecamp never had Scrum Masters. GitHub doesn't use them. Stripe's engineering teams coordinate without dedicated process managers. These companies ship products millions of developers use.
A 2023 survey of 400+ Bay Area tech companies: only 31% of high-growth startups employ dedicated Scrum Masters. The ones without them? 23% higher deployment frequency.
Spotify scaled to 600+ engineers across multiple countries without dedicated Scrum Masters. Estimated savings: $8-12M annually. That money hired senior engineers instead.
The Market Is Speaking
LinkedIn job postings for Scrum Masters dropped 34% year-over-year in Q1 2026.
Postings for Engineering Managers and Technical Leads? Up 18%.
Companies want people who can manage process AND understand technology—not one or the other.
The Real Question
I tracked what Scrum Masters do for six months across three companies:
- 40% of time: meetings about meetings
- 25%: updating Jira tickets developers already updated
- 15%: actual coaching or mentorship
A 2023 survey of 847 developers: 62% couldn't identify a single valuable activity their Scrum Master performed in the previous sprint.
That's a $120K calendar administrator.
What This Means for Your Team
The uncomfortable truth? Most organizations can't quantify what their Scrum Masters actually deliver. They track story points (which teams complete anyway) and meeting attendance (which proves nothing).
I've asked dozens of engineering managers to show me before/after metrics when they hired a Scrum Master. Most couldn't produce anything beyond "the team seems happier."
That's a $150K feelings budget.
Want to know if your Scrum Master position is actually worth the investment?
I built a free ROI calculator that shows you exactly what your daily standups and ceremonies actually cost—and what you could do with that money instead: Calculate Your Standup Tax
The math might surprise you. Or confirm what you already suspected.
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