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What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

letsencrypt.org

141–150 of 394 posts

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200K per person staffing budget isn't $200K per person salary. Benefits, employer share of payroll taxes, and other things that don't show up in top-line salary are in there. You are a lot bigger cost to your employer than your gross salary.

Yep. Here at UC, the non-salary costs can be in excess of 60% of salary.

And in the federal govt it's at least that percentage... Anecdotally, in one department within the DoD, it's ~90%, which sounds insane.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#142
When considering the salary for their staff, it is important to point out that LetsEncrypt only works if there is trust. They need to have high caliber people that they can trust and this costs money. Hearing that LE Is paying their people a fairly good wage, makes me much more comfortable using and supporting them.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#144
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make sense but it is true. If you're really good, someone will make you an offer for an SV salary, and now everyone needs to compete with that. Besides, it's only fair. Your value shouldn't be tied to where you live per se. It's true that people in some areas make less because they have fewer options in their area, but for a high caliber person, they have plenty of options whether they move their physical…

> Your value shouldn't be tied to where you live per se. If that was the case people wouldn't make $200k in SV, $75k in Omaha, and $9k in Phuket for the same job.

People who are near the top of the skill curve, and can present a business case for being paid like it, don't make $75K in Omaha for that job. (They may make $9K in Phuket, but there are additional factors on top of that.)

If I left Boston today, I'd still make what I make here. I have considered doing exactly that.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#145
post #37

To everyone complaining about the $250K (see edit, it's actually 200K) per person in salary (which seems to be everyone at the moment), a few things to keep in mind: 1) That includes benefits 2) They are in Silicon Valley and have to compete with everyone else in Silicon Valley 3) Given what they have accomplished with such a small team, these are probably high caliber people. 4) In SV there is a good 25% premium you…

If they provided an identical quality of service with 25 employees for $2m nobody would bat an eye. I'd say the fact that the team is so lean is justification for higher salaries in and of itself.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#146
post #37

To everyone complaining about the $250K (see edit, it's actually 200K) per person in salary (which seems to be everyone at the moment), a few things to keep in mind: 1) That includes benefits 2) They are in Silicon Valley and have to compete with everyone else in Silicon Valley 3) Given what they have accomplished with such a small team, these are probably high caliber people. 4) In SV there is a good 25% premium you…

> To everyone complaining about the $250K (see edit, it's actually 200K) per person in salary I don't think people are _complaining_ about it, just expressing surprise/shock. It's one thing to read the anonymous "I know a guy who's brother's roommate makes $300K at Google" comments that you have to take with a grain of salt, but another thing to see an actual company's data. Eye opening for sure.

Yeah you have a point. I guess living here and having many friends who make more than 300K/yr as engineers (and some as much at 450K or 500K, and a few getting >1.2M), I've become numb to it.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#147
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it is for 8. Two of the people are being paid by another company. At least that's what I understood.

It is ten (I made the budget), but I apologize for not making that more clear in the blog post. We have eight employees now, and have budgeted for ten in 2017.

OK, thanks for the clarification. You guys are doing a really awesome thing but this post makes me worry about your longevity. Does Let's Encrypt have plans for other sources of revenue? Like selling support services?

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people who seriously know how to code mission critical X.590 root CA PKI infrastructure are not cheap when you're looking at total benefits/compensation per head.

>people who seriously know how to code mission critical X.590 root CA PKI infrastructure are not cheap And they also aren't working at letsencrypt.

You've exhaustively enumerated those people, have you?

I know a couple folks at Let's Encrypt in passing and they are at the top of my list of folks I would want writing code for me if I needed to trust it with, if not my life, most stuff up to that point.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#149
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make sense but it is true. If you're really good, someone will make you an offer for an SV salary, and now everyone needs to compete with that. Besides, it's only fair. Your value shouldn't be tied to where you live per se. It's true that people in some areas make less because they have fewer options in their area, but for a high caliber person, they have plenty of options whether they move their physical…

> Your value shouldn't be tied to where you live per se. If that was the case people wouldn't make $200k in SV, $75k in Omaha, and $9k in Phuket for the same job.

Yes what is and, according to the parent what should be, diverge.

What this really tells me is that workers in Omaha and Phuket ought to demand more, and that they are selling themselves for far less than the value they create, or else that they aren't actually doing "the same job." Likely both are true.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#150

Many people here don't realize what it costs a business, in taxes, to employ someone. I think if more people realized this, we would have less people demanding a $15 pay-raise for minimum wage workers.

I strongly disagree. What the worker needs to make to have a puncher's chance at a life is not related to the amount paid in taxes.
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