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Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

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Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#31

Post by [deleted] »

trhway wrote: post #17
jgalt212 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. FAANG pays X, so other companies know they need to pay 1.3X to hire FAANG level engineers. So the info sharing may help FAANG collude, but it won't suppress wages for those who can be poached from FAANG. That's assuming there aren't any behind the scenes no-poaching agreements. https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-google-others-settle-anti-po...

>I don't buy it. FAANG pays X, so other companies know they need to pay 1.3X to hire FAANG level engineers. no. The rest knows that they can pay 0.3-0.5X to hire the rest of the engineers. C people hire C people and there are always more than enough C people around. Our BigCo has no talent shortage for example(we'll even be cutting 5-10% in the next few months - just fat trimming, the company has no financial issues…

[deleted]

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#32

Post by ummonk »

m0zg wrote: post #28

Job market is sort of similar to the real estate market. If you're shopping for a house (or looking for a job), it's pointless to look at the "market as a whole", because that's not the segment you're in: you're shopping for something narrow and specific. A much better statistic would be to break things down by specialization, seniority, and whether or not a person had a stint at FAANG (which, and this will be delibe…

Also should be noted that the runup in tech valuations has meant that engineers who joined a few years ago at a fang have seen their stock grants go up a lot in value. Now, to be able to hire experienced engineers from each other, companies have upped the size of their signing bonus and initial grants to match the run up in value of unvested stock.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#33

Post by jriot »

ModernMech wrote: post #30
jriot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im at a $100k, my wife stays at home with our two school age kids, we live quite comfortably.

> my wife stays at home with our two school age kids Ah, so she's providing service equivalent to $100k

We haven't calculated the cost, but we know its up there. Particularly since we make 90% of our meals from scratch. She does all the baking, we share in the cooking and split clean-up.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#34

Post by ummonk »

codemac wrote: post #11
kamarg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there many companies that can pay 1.3x of FAANG compensation? One of the big reasons people go work at the big 5 is the pay.

Just SV unicorns usually, and even then a lot of it is speculated value. But the unicorns definitely pay if you're above a certain experience level - and if you build the correct professional network you can basically demand it.

Decacorns more accurately. Lots of mediocre paying startups out there with 1-2 billion valuations.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#35

Post by GVIrish »

I'd be curious to see what job descriptions made up the survey. There's easily more than $100k difference between the something like a junior help desk analyst vs a senior sw engineer, and that's not even getting into FAANG compensation levels.

If you mix all of those roles into the same bucket for this survey, it makes the average salary number somewhat useless. Not to mention that geography plays a big role.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#36

Post by ummonk »

kamarg wrote: post #14
_bxg1 wrote: post #10

I'd bet it's just a function of what people are willing to do the job for. $93k gives you a very comfortable lifestyle, and tech workers tend to be much more motivated by the work itself than their peers. Those who really care about getting rich will go to SV and do a startup. So there's not as much pressure for increase.

Er...isn't the general agreement that if you want to get rich you absolutely should not go work for or found a startup but instead get a steady job at big corp and live below your means? People are always on about how shares in a startup should be counted as $0 compensation. Not to mention $93k doesn't go very far in places with large populations and high job prospects.

Founding a startup is a decent way to get rich, although a big roll of the dice. Joining one is not though.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#37

Post by ummonk »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
_bxg1 wrote: post #10

I'd bet it's just a function of what people are willing to do the job for. $93k gives you a very comfortable lifestyle, and tech workers tend to be much more motivated by the work itself than their peers. Those who really care about getting rich will go to SV and do a startup. So there's not as much pressure for increase.

$93k supporting a family (stay at home partner, two kids) is most definitely not comfortable, whether in the Midwest or the coasts. Insurance premiums alone would be ~$15k/year (pretax, but still). Throw in a mortgage or rent @ $1500/month, that's another $18k/year, you've already consumed a third of your wages.

15k/year after the employer contribution?

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#38

Post by VRay »

pkaye wrote: post #18
idiot900 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$93k does not give a very comfortable lifestyle in SF/NYC.

You certainly can is you bought your house 10+ years ago.

If that's the situation, maybe you should just quit your job, rent out your house, move way out to the middle of nowhere, and live off the rental profits

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#39

Post by toomuchtodo »

ummonk wrote: post #37
toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$93k supporting a family (stay at home partner, two kids) is most definitely not comfortable, whether in the Midwest or the coasts. Insurance premiums alone would be ~$15k/year (pretax, but still). Throw in a mortgage or rent @ $1500/month, that's another $18k/year, you've already consumed a third of your wages.

15k/year after the employer contribution?

Yes, although I have colleagues at other companies who pay much less (~$6k-8k year employee cost). Hard to make apples to apples comparison because employer health plans aren't public, but I have seen amazing plans and I've seen absolute garbage plans where you need to go to the open marketplace instead (and in doing so, your premiums are now non-tax deductible and you're paying the entire cost with no employer subsidy). I conservatively round up, because medical costs usually end up higher than expected.

Re: Tech Salaries Stagnant Despite Low Unemployment: Survey

#40

Post by zn44 »

xxxanony wrote: post #5
jgalt212 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. FAANG pays X, so other companies know they need to pay 1.3X to hire FAANG level engineers. So the info sharing may help FAANG collude, but it won't suppress wages for those who can be poached from FAANG. That's assuming there aren't any behind the scenes no-poaching agreements. https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-google-others-settle-anti-po...

I'm not so sure... plenty of software engineers will gladly accept less than X to NOT work at a FAANG company.

not to mention there's quite a few companies who don't want FAANG type of engineers
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