70k salary is junior money in St.Louis. Absolutely average senior devs make 100-120. Good ones do long term consulting, and get closer to the 200k range. The best I have seen for a local company is about 250k a year, for truly shiny people.
Then I'm doing something seriously wrong, because I have been an engineer in Dallas for fourteen years (eight writing software full-time) and I have never made over $93k. Never had stock or a meaningful bonus, either.
