181–190 of 303 posts
It is sad there isn't a single serious answer. If you are making $300k+, you should be able to write a decent and detailed answer as long as it doesn't expose your anonymity. Another important question: What is your take-way home amount vs. what you pay in taxes. $300k is cool but if you are paying $100k of it to uncle Sam, then it is not really $300k.
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These threads are mostly comedy and hot air. Don’t let them fan anything. Everyone here says they’re making $300k. It’s a trope that won’t die. They are either statistical outliers or exaggerating. Median for the Bay Area (which tends to be the highest in the country if not the world) is around $115k plus equity. I’m not going to trot out the links again, but these numbers are Googlable unlike all the anecdotes.
Even the $300k numbers here are 50%+ equity. That's a considerable risk. It worked over the past 10 years because tech stocks have outperformed everything else. If we see a true tech stock crash (50%+ correction), many of those $300k salaries are in reality closer to $200k (or less if you'll never be able to sell the stocks). I don't wish that to anyone but it's important to keep in mind that stock bonus is something…
For the most part you'd live in a place like NYC or the Bay Area to come up with these kind of salaries. So let's assume you live in the Bay Area (California). New Federal income tax is 35% for that salary range then add 13% coming from beautiful and sunny California. We're at a 48 % tax rate. Let's round that up to 50% to simplify our maths. Congratulations - you are now making $150k/year! From 300 down to 150 just…
That's not how it works. Anything above $200,000 will be taxed at 35%.
You're taxed in brackets. For the first $9525 you're taxed at 10%, from $9525 to $38,700 you're taxed at 12%, and on we go.
Your actual federal income tax at $300,000 is going to be more like $80,000. California state income tax is the same way, and the 13% doesn't appear to kick in until you're above a million [0], so that's more like $25,000, for a total of $106,000ish[1].
You "simplified" $44,000 away.
[0]: https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable
[1]: I'm really bad at my taxes, so take that number with a grain of salt, but it sure as hell isn't a flat $150,000.
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I've read previously of machine learning specialists in Atlanta reaching this level of compensation
I am one of these Atlanta-based machine learning specialists, here to confirm that we do exist. But I think it is very rare, and I am not sure many at all are doing $300k+. Since the cost of living is comparatively low, though, I am doing way better than I ever could dream of doing in the bay.
It is sad there isn't a single serious answer. If you are making $300k+, you should be able to write a decent and detailed answer as long as it doesn't expose your anonymity. Another important question: What is your take-way home amount vs. what you pay in taxes. $300k is cool but if you are paying $100k of it to uncle Sam, then it is not really $300k.
Sure it is.
I've worked for a fair number of high profile startups in Chicago and I've seen a number of people reach the 300k+ realm.
Generally these people have been highly skilled directors, executives, or principle engineers and they have an exceptional track record of delivering results. In general I would estimate most of the ones I have worked with as having 10-20 years experience and I believe they got to where they are by having a great combination of raw talent, a great personality, drive, and the ability to coach and mentor others.
Note that I have also come across at least two or three people at this level that had gotten there simply by being friends with a founder or early investor. Usually these types of people don't last more than a year or two though. Once the company starts gaining traction and brings in real leaders that expect real returns these types of individuals are usually the first to go.
Also in Chicago the principle engineers that I have seen hit this level tend to have a strong understanding of stream processing, real time analytics, the smack stack, systems engineering, and data science. From my own interviewing and hiring experiences in Chicago I can also say that if you can demonstrate skills in these areas as en engineer and have some greenfield experience it's pretty easy to hit 150k-200k total comp with no more than 5 years of total experience. I haven't seen anyone under principle hit 200k+ with a reasonable work life balance, I know a few fintech engineers that approach 250k+ but they work 80 hour weeks and hate their life.
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I think the math of going from $300k to $150k went by too quickly for me. Can you go over it in a little more detail?
300k gross income at 50% income tax is $150k net.
Here are the tax brackets for this year:
$0.00+ 10%
$9,525.00+ 12%
$38,700.00+ 22%
$82,500.00+ 24%
$157,500.00+ 32%
$200,000.00+ 35%
$500,000.00+ 37%
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Don’t forget the govt takes over 40 percent when your making upper class to higher level salaries especially if your single. That 300k is really only 180k annually. So the govt takes the salary of a lower level upper class person for taxes. When u make the jump from 50k to a higher tax bracket, taxes will shock u!
Wat? My highest overall tax percentage was 32% when I made 300k as a single person.