UX Designer Salary New York 2026: $70K–$205K+ (Tech, Finance & Startups)

New York City is not Silicon Valley — and for UX designers, that distinction matters more than you might think. NYC's design market is split between two worlds: the consumer-focused tech companies (Google, Meta, Spotify, Etsy, Mailchimp) that look and feel like San Francisco employers, and the financial institutions (JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, Citigroup) that pay a meaningful premium for designers willing to navigate the complexity of enterprise finance products.

The result is a salary landscape that rewards specialization. A mid-level UX designer at a fintech startup can out-earn a senior designer at a pure consumer tech company. A staff designer who understands both the visual polish of consumer apps and the data density of trading interfaces can command compensation that rivals engineering managers.

Here is exactly what UX designers earn in New York in 2026, which employers pay the most, how your toolset affects your number, and how NYC compares to San Francisco and remote options.

UX Designer Salary Ranges in NYC (2026)

Total comp includes base salary, annual bonus (5–15% at most tech companies, 15–30% at finance firms), and RSU grants vesting over 3–4 years. Key insight: The gap between base and total comp widens dramatically at senior levels. A senior UX designer at Google NYC earning $155K base may have $40K–$60K in annual RSU refreshes and a 15% target bonus, pushing total annual compensation to $210K+. At JPMorgan, a senior designer at $150K base with a 25% bonus target hits the same $187K all-in without equity complexity.

For the full multi-city UX designer picture, see our UX Designer Salary Guide 2026.

Role Distinctions: UX vs UI vs Product Designer vs UX Researcher

These titles overlap significantly in NYC job postings, but the pay differences are real:

UX Designer — Focuses on user research, information architecture, user flows, and wireframing. Mid-level NYC range: $90K–$120K. Strong generalist skill set; common at mid-size tech companies and agencies. UI Designer — Specializes in visual design, component systems, and pixel-level craft. NYC pay skews 5–10% lower than UX generalists ($85K–$115K at mid level) unless paired with strong motion or brand capabilities. Rare to find pure UI roles at product companies; more common at agencies and consumer brands. Product Designer — The dominant title at consumer tech companies (Spotify, Etsy, Figma, Mailchimp). Combines UX + UI + light product thinking. Mid-level NYC: $95K–$130K. This is the highest-paying non-senior designer title in pure tech. Google, Meta, and Amazon all use "Product Designer" instead of "UX Designer" in their job postings. UX Researcher — Dedicated research role: user interviews, usability studies, quantitative research, and synthesis. NYC mid-level: $95K–$125K, comparable to UX design. Senior UX Researchers at FAANG companies in NYC earn $145K–$185K base. Finance firms value research skills heavily — JPMorgan and Bloomberg pay UX Researchers $130K–$170K senior base.

Top NYC Employers and What They Pay

Google NYC (Hudson Square) — Product Designers L4 (mid): $140K–$165K base + $50K–$80K RSU/year. L5 (senior): $165K–$200K base + $80K–$130K RSU/year. Total comp at L5 regularly hits $250K–$320K. Google Design is globally regarded — a Google offer is a powerful salary anchor even if you accept elsewhere. Meta NYC — Product Designers IC4 (mid): $135K–$160K base + comparable RSU to Google. IC5 (senior): $165K–$205K base. Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp design teams are based partly in NYC with strong NYC headcount. Amazon NYC — UX Designers L5 (mid-senior): $130K–$160K base with back-loaded RSU vesting (5%/15%/40%/40%). L6 (senior): $165K–$200K+ base. Amazon NYC covers AWS, Alexa, and retail product design. JPMorgan Chase — The largest private employer of UX designers in New York's finance sector. Senior UX Designers: $140K–$175K base + 20–30% annual bonus. The design work is complex: trading interfaces, mobile banking apps, and wealth management dashboards all require different mental models. JPMorgan's design system team is one of the largest enterprise design operations in the US. Bloomberg LP — Bloomberg terminal UX is an industry of its own. Senior UX Designers: $145K–$185K base. Bloomberg pays above market rate for designers who understand data-dense, professional financial interfaces. The terminal has ~330,000 active users globally — design changes have immediate and measurable impact. IBM Design (NYC) — IBM's NYC studio focuses on enterprise design. UX Designers (senior): $120K–$155K base. IBM Design thinking is globally recognized, and the NYC practice works across financial services, healthcare, and cloud product clients. Etsy — Strong consumer UX culture. Senior Product Designers: $130K–$165K base + equity. Etsy has been a proving ground for top NYC product designers who later move to FAANG. Spotify NYC — Product Designers at Spotify NYC work on consumer music and podcast experiences. Senior: $135K–$165K base + equity. Spotify has expanded its NYC design presence significantly. Figma NYC — The company that makes the tool. Product Designers at Figma: $150K–$190K base (senior), with strong equity at a $12.5B valuation. If you want to work on the tool designers use, Figma is the place. Mailchimp / Intuit NYC — Mailchimp's NYC design office: Senior UX Designers $120K–$150K base. Strong UX culture, more predictable hours than FAANG.

For context on how these compare to other NYC tech roles, see our Tech Salaries New York 2026 guide.

Finance / Fintech UX Premium

Finance and fintech companies consistently pay 15–25% more for UX designers than comparable tech companies in NYC. Why?

Complexity premium: Financial products — trading platforms, risk dashboards, portfolio management tools, payment processing interfaces — are significantly more cognitively complex than consumer apps. Designers need to understand the domain, not just the interface. Regulatory constraint premium: Every UI decision in a consumer banking or brokerage app involves compliance review. Designers who can work effectively within regulatory constraints without losing usability are rare and valued. Enterprise tooling premium: Bloomberg, Reuters, and buy-side financial firms have legacy design systems that require specialist knowledge. Designers who can modernize complex enterprise interfaces command fees that pure consumer designers cannot. Fintech scale: Companies like Stripe, Plaid, Brex, and Ramp — all with significant NYC presence — pay FAANG-adjacent compensation (senior: $150K–$195K base) and offer earlier-stage equity upside.

Tool Premiums: What Your Stack Is Worth

Figma proficiency is no longer optional — it is a baseline requirement at virtually every NYC tech and fintech employer. The premium comes from advanced Figma work: building auto-layout components, maintaining design tokens, managing multi-team design systems, and running design critiques in collaborative Figma files.

Framer is increasingly valued at consumer tech companies where high-fidelity, interactive prototypes are expected before engineering handoff. Principle and Rive are specialized motion tools that matter primarily at companies with premium consumer interfaces (Spotify, Apple, Google consumer products).

NYC vs San Francisco vs Remote: Salary Comparison

San Francisco still leads on headline base salary — typically 15–20% higher than NYC at equivalent levels. However, California's income tax (up to 13.3% state) significantly narrows the after-tax gap. A senior UX designer earning $165K in SF faces ~$15K–$20K more in state income tax than the same designer earning $145K in NYC. NYC-specific taxes: New York City residents pay both NYS income tax (4–10.9%) and NYC city tax (3.876%). Combined with federal, a NYC designer earning $140K faces an effective total tax rate of approximately 36–40%. This is the main financial disadvantage of NYC vs remote roles or Seattle. See our Tech Salaries New York 2026 guide for full tax context. Remote UX design pays well but sits 10–15% below NYC rates at most companies. Location-based pay policies (common at Google, Meta, and Stripe) set remote salaries based on where you live — NYC-adjacent remote rates are among the highest in the country.

NYC Salary Transparency Law: Your Negotiation Edge

New York City's Local Law 32 (effective November 2022) requires employers to post salary ranges for all NYC-based roles. For UX designers, this law has been a game-changer.

What it means in practice:

Every UX design job posting in NYC must include a salary range

Ranges are often wide ($90K–$160K is common) — understanding where you fall matters

You can anchor your counteroffer to the upper half of the posted range

Employers expect candidates to negotiate to the top of the band

Negotiation strategy: If a role is posted at $95K–$145K and you have 5 years of experience with a strong portfolio, your opening ask should be $140K–$150K. Companies post ranges they are willing to pay — the question is whether you can justify the upper end.

Portfolio and Case Study: The NYC Salary Multiplier

In New York's competitive UX market, years of experience is table stakes. What separates $110K designers from $150K designers at the same seniority level is almost always the portfolio.

What makes a case study count:

Specific, measurable impact: "Redesigned onboarding flow, reducing drop-off from 42% to 28%"

Clear problem framing: What was the business problem, not just the design problem

Evidence of research: How did you validate decisions before building them

Before/after clarity: The design journey, not just the final artifact

Cross-functional context: How you worked with PMs and engineers, not just other designers

NYC employers — particularly at Google, Meta, and finance firms — routinely reject candidates with 7–10 years of experience if the portfolio lacks depth. And they routinely fast-track candidates with 4–5 years of experience whose case studies demonstrate clear business thinking. The portfolio is the salary negotiation, not just the job application.

For related NYC salary context, see:

Product Manager Salary New York 2026 — how PMs you'll work alongside are compensated

Frontend Engineer Salary New York 2026 — the engineers who implement your designs

Tech Salaries New York 2026 — the full NYC tech salary landscape

What to Do Next

If you are a UX designer in New York City in 2026 and you haven't benchmarked your salary in the past year, you are likely leaving money on the table. NYC's salary transparency law means your employer's range is public — find the posted band for your role and see where you land.

If you're at the bottom of the band, make the case with portfolio evidence. If you're above the mid-point without a senior title, it's time to have the title conversation. And if the company can't move the number, NYC's deep UX job market means your next offer can.

Start with the UX Designer Salary Guide 2026 for the multi-city picture, then use CareerCheck to see exactly where your role, experience, and location put you in the current market.