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Use this site. http://data.jobsintech.io/ It's based on public data required for H1B/employer-sponsored visa. So typically will include not very senior engineers.

The simplest advice is this: Interview, A LOT, take some time every week/month and schedule several interviews. After the 10th interview you'll have a very good valuation of your worth.

This is what I believe OP's biggest mistake is - had he interviewed more earlier, he could have gotten to $120K within a year most likely. He _was_ the guy making $75K back then.

Consider using http://www.PayScale.com to find out what you should be paid. You can put in details about your specific job (skills, education, city, title, etc) and it will give you an accurate range of what the market is paying.

Note I work at PayScale BUT this is exactly one of the types of problems we're solving.