Live data from Hacker News

Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

blog.step.com

21–30 of 229 posts

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#21
post #19

I would be more interested in data that shows how much money an engineer takes back home (net income) compared to the rest of the world. eg Software Engineer from Atlantis earns 100 000 USD but pays 55% of tax so takes home only 45000 Software Engineer from Middle-Earth earns 60 000 USD but pays 10% tax and takes home 54000 etc

You also have to take into account things like quality of life in the city vs a long commute if living in the suburb.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#22

Wasn't there already a spreadsheet floating around HN with many thousands of entries? Why a new one?

There are a bunch of spreadsheets. We consolidated and standardized the data on a few of them, but we still have more to do. We clean the data, and then we try to see what type of synthesized info we can provide back.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#23
post #19

I would be more interested in data that shows how much money an engineer takes back home (net income) compared to the rest of the world. eg Software Engineer from Atlantis earns 100 000 USD but pays 55% of tax so takes home only 45000 Software Engineer from Middle-Earth earns 60 000 USD but pays 10% tax and takes home 54000 etc

You also have to take into account things like quality of life in the city vs a long commute if living in the suburb.

You're not wrong, but tax is certainly one of the easier first steps as part of trying to compare salaries.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#24
post #19

I would be more interested in data that shows how much money an engineer takes back home (net income) compared to the rest of the world. eg Software Engineer from Atlantis earns 100 000 USD but pays 55% of tax so takes home only 45000 Software Engineer from Middle-Earth earns 60 000 USD but pays 10% tax and takes home 54000 etc

We're not quite there yet with the data we have :). Anecdotally though, it seems like companies in Europe pay less and take out more taxes.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#25
post #3

Is it a case of only people making the most money are more apt to report their earnings?

My thoughts exactly $400K? Could someone being paid this level of money please share your career path.

At GOOG/FB a large chunk of that comes from equity. 400k for a senior+ level engineering job at one of the "big" tech co's in the valley/SF isn't outrageous at all. Base salary ~200, bonus/equity another ~200.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#26
post #24
post #19

I would be more interested in data that shows how much money an engineer takes back home (net income) compared to the rest of the world. eg Software Engineer from Atlantis earns 100 000 USD but pays 55% of tax so takes home only 45000 Software Engineer from Middle-Earth earns 60 000 USD but pays 10% tax and takes home 54000 etc

We're not quite there yet with the data we have :). Anecdotally though, it seems like companies in Europe pay less and take out more taxes.

Yep cut the compensation by about 50% and increase the taxation by 50% :)

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#27
post #19

I would be more interested in data that shows how much money an engineer takes back home (net income) compared to the rest of the world. eg Software Engineer from Atlantis earns 100 000 USD but pays 55% of tax so takes home only 45000 Software Engineer from Middle-Earth earns 60 000 USD but pays 10% tax and takes home 54000 etc

It's very hard to make these kinds of comparison (take a look at the Economist's Big Mac index which attempts to illustrate relative buying power in different places). Similarly income tax may be low (e.g. Texas) but property taxes, sales tax, and tolls may be high (e.g. Texas) and social services may suck (e.g. Texas). There are some cost of living calculators around which try to calculate equivalent salaries around the US but they have not been more accurate than guesswork in my experience.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#29
post #10
post #3

Is it a case of only people making the most money are more apt to report their earnings?

We actually suspect that people who are paid less or are underpaid are more likely to report their salaries. For example, it seems like Glassdoor data skews low.

How did you determine that? Perhaps your expectations are just high?

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have to take into account things like quality of life in the city vs a long commute if living in the suburb.

You're not wrong, but tax is certainly one of the easier first steps as part of trying to compare salaries.

Right, but easier doesn't mean useful. E.g. One of the easiest steps in comparing salaries across countries is exchange rate, but it's not nearly as useful as a list of local prices for commonly needed stuff. E.g. In Singapore when I last visited (quite a while back) car registration cost about $30,000 per year.
Post reply on HN