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Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

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Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#2
A solid article, but it should have commented on single family home prices. If you use the 3x salary rule, a $120k a year techie couldn't afford the median home price in America ($374k). A software engineer in San Francisco would have to make $526k a year in cold hard cash to reasonably afford the median single family home ($1.58 million).

Talking about six figure salaries as if they are unquestionably upper-middle class should take housing prices into account.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#3

A solid article, but it should have commented on single family home prices. If you use the 3x salary rule, a $120k a year techie couldn't afford the median home price in America ($374k). A software engineer in San Francisco would have to make $526k a year in cold hard cash to reasonably afford the median single family home ($1.58 million). Talking about six figure salaries as if they are unquestionably upper-middle c…

Where does 3X salary rule come from?

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#4

A solid article, but it should have commented on single family home prices. If you use the 3x salary rule, a $120k a year techie couldn't afford the median home price in America ($374k). A software engineer in San Francisco would have to make $526k a year in cold hard cash to reasonably afford the median single family home ($1.58 million). Talking about six figure salaries as if they are unquestionably upper-middle c…

Yeah, six figures isn't what it used to be. Same thing with being a millionaire. Inflation has deflated the significance of accomplishing my dreams.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#5
>the average tech worker’s salary [will] reach $104,566 in the U.S. — a 6.9% increase since 2020, the report found.

But inflation is over 11% since 2020. This isn't an increase. The average tech worker is making less than they were 2 years ago according to the Dice salary report.

Why do tech workers feel underpaid? Many companies posted record growth and profits over the pandemic, but still give out paltry 3-5% raises every year. The cost savings of work from home must have been enormous for these companies, yet none of that savings or record profits trickled down to the people writing code.

Meanwhile for those that have the time and willpower to grind leetcode, they know they can command a 20-40% raise every few years. It's not a secret that tech companies underpay their employees and bank on them being too complacent to go through the interview gauntlet yet again. Most devs will admit that they couldn't readily pass the interview at even their own company without many hours of studying and practicing algorithms.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#7
If true, noting that just shy of 50% of tech folk feel underpaid seems surprising… for how low the number is, not how high. Everyone I know (judges, attorneys, law clerks, doctors, administrative staff, teachers, baristas…) thinks that they are underpaid. The fact that less-than-half of tech workers feel underpaid seems like a great sign to me for the industry.

I’d also be curious who the survey data was gathered from - the cited to studies are from a recruiting agency and have no source citations.

Edit, to add: here’s a survey of 26,000 people indicating that almost everyone feels underpaid - https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/pay-satisfact...

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#8

A solid article, but it should have commented on single family home prices. If you use the 3x salary rule, a $120k a year techie couldn't afford the median home price in America ($374k). A software engineer in San Francisco would have to make $526k a year in cold hard cash to reasonably afford the median single family home ($1.58 million). Talking about six figure salaries as if they are unquestionably upper-middle c…

What 1980s fantasy is this 3x rule?

Median household incomes to home price ratios have risen to ~8x across the US as a whole , not just crazy house price areas like SF/NYC. Canada and Australia are far worse again, pushing 15x in some cities.

3x, if it ever was a rule, has been dead for a long long time.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#9

A solid article, but it should have commented on single family home prices. If you use the 3x salary rule, a $120k a year techie couldn't afford the median home price in America ($374k). A software engineer in San Francisco would have to make $526k a year in cold hard cash to reasonably afford the median single family home ($1.58 million). Talking about six figure salaries as if they are unquestionably upper-middle c…

Where does 3X salary rule come from?

Early America when homes were steady at about that price.
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