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Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#111

Post by thesimon »

jjjeii3 wrote: post #101

Meanwhile, EU salaries are stagnating and it's one of the worst places to be a software engineer. An average salary for a software developer in Germany was 46000 Euro per year in 2020, and don't forget, it's one of the richest countries in Europe. The average in EU is even lower... After paying taxes a single person with that salary will only have 2400 Euro per month (~ 2800 USD). The guy who cleans our house in Germ…

>46000 Euro per month in

I guess you mean 4600€ per month.

FAANG salaries in Europe are not too bad, at least London seems to be okay-ish in terms of salary vs. CoL. The openings are rather limited and I never had any luck, but YMMV.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#112

Post by standardUser »

kazen44 wrote: post #78
riantogo wrote: post #49

For those outside Silicon Valley why might think, "you could live like a king with that kind of money", here is a potential home you are looking at ($2M, 1200 sqft, 7 rated schools): https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/3785-Park-Blvd-94306/hom...

what i always wonder about this massive income inequality in silicon valley is, where are the non high paying people living? you know, people who are not highly trained professionals with advanced degrees but who are still required to make up a community. (bakers, school teachers, nurses, technical craftsman, caretakers etc). It is my understanding that those people make signficantly less money (more on the "standard…

With roommates, in rent controlled apartments, in subsidized housing, in bad neighborhoods most people don't frequent. And some in homes they bought before housing prices skyrocketed to absorb all of those high tech salaries.

Or just far away with long, miserable commutes.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#113

Post by [deleted] »

jjjeii3 wrote: post #101

Meanwhile, EU salaries are stagnating and it's one of the worst places to be a software engineer. An average salary for a software developer in Germany was 46000 Euro per year in 2020, and don't forget, it's one of the richest countries in Europe. The average in EU is even lower... After paying taxes a single person with that salary will only have 2400 Euro per month (~ 2800 USD). The guy who cleans our house in Germ…

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#114

Post by [deleted] »

kazen44 wrote: post #78
riantogo wrote: post #49

For those outside Silicon Valley why might think, "you could live like a king with that kind of money", here is a potential home you are looking at ($2M, 1200 sqft, 7 rated schools): https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/3785-Park-Blvd-94306/hom...

what i always wonder about this massive income inequality in silicon valley is, where are the non high paying people living? you know, people who are not highly trained professionals with advanced degrees but who are still required to make up a community. (bakers, school teachers, nurses, technical craftsman, caretakers etc). It is my understanding that those people make signficantly less money (more on the "standard…

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#115

Post by chrisseaton »

closeparen wrote: post #56
aphextron wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bay area comp is massively bimodal. FAANG tier folks are certainly making that much, but they are a tiny fraction of the market. Most senior devs at smaller companies and startups are making under $200k.

Companies in the tier of Stripe, Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Robinhood, etc. pay that much at senior levels. Often better than FAANG.

People at these companies are super-elite tier. It doesn't even remotely represent the experience of most working developers.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#116

Post by jjjeii3 »

thesimon wrote: post #111
jjjeii3 wrote: post #101

Meanwhile, EU salaries are stagnating and it's one of the worst places to be a software engineer. An average salary for a software developer in Germany was 46000 Euro per year in 2020, and don't forget, it's one of the richest countries in Europe. The average in EU is even lower... After paying taxes a single person with that salary will only have 2400 Euro per month (~ 2800 USD). The guy who cleans our house in Germ…

>46000 Euro per month in I guess you mean 4600€ per month. FAANG salaries in Europe are not too bad, at least London seems to be okay-ish in terms of salary vs. CoL. The openings are rather limited and I never had any luck, but YMMV.

* per year (was a typo)

here is the source (in German):

https://www.daxx.com/de/blog/entwicklungstrends/it-gehaelter....

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#117

Post by logicslave »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #39
stack_underflow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've noticed is that the people making these counter-arguments seem to completely ignore (or don't know about) the ridiculous amounts of equity that $big_tech_co's are handing out. Yes some of those points can be valid, and I understand that not all software companies hand out that much stock or are private and therefore it's harder to depend on, etc. But maybe it's just the bubble of tech that I've existed…

Equity is great when the stock market is booming, but when it decides to drop off a cliff every decade or so for whatever reason I'd prefer if my actual salary didn't go with it

Nobody gets rich without owning equity in a business.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#118

Post by asdffdsa »

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

I only use Levels.fyi btw. Blows glassdoor out of the water. Thank you so much.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#119

Post by Justsignedup »

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Just looking at this data I question why even bother working for a startup. Getting paid 200k at a startup is a rarity, usually with poor health benefits. Lots of work and a hope that you can make up the difference in case of a huge sale.

Am I looking at it wrong?

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#120

Post by closeparen »

standardUser wrote: post #107
closeparen wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies in the tier of Stripe, Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Robinhood, etc. pay that much at senior levels. Often better than FAANG.

You're confining your thinking to well-known companies you can name. For every company you can name, there are 20 you've never heard of and they sure as hell aren't paying average developers $200k.

I am refuting the blatantly false claim that only FAANG compensate like this.

I agree that some employers lowball like crazy, and that some engineers don’t know better, have reasons to live in low-productivity regions that are worth six-figure opportunity costs to them (family, etc), or couldn’t pass the interviews. But it is worthwhile to remind people that this whole world is out there and they could pursue it if they wanted to.

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