Live data from Hacker News

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

toolbox.com

11–20 of 609 posts

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

#11
Honestly I've been asking for more pay to come into the office from companies I'm interviewing at because rent is skyrocketing and my competition when trying to buy a home even within an hour of most of these offices is on the order of $100k-$300k + appraisal. My rent should be 1/3 of what I take home.

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

#12

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?

It's a rule of thumb that your total debt should not exceed 1/3 of your income.

It has no economic foundations whatsoever.

Yet, banking institutions use(d?) this rule to reject whatever application they were not comfortable with.

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

#13

>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% raise…

I don't feel underpaid, but I definitely feel like I've lost tons of ground in the last 2 years.

The floor has risen big time. Entry level jobs are paying up to 60k these days, whereas they were closer to 30k a few years back. Good for them, seriously. But watching the floor rise closer to you is never a great feeling.

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

#14

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…

in the UK at the moment you can get morgages for 5.25x salary, especially if you have a high income.

I assume the US has roughly the same now.

The old mortgage multiplers have gone for now.

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

#15
post #10

It also makes us Europeans feel underpaid :) I have 20 years of experience and don't even make six figures. $350000 base pay sounds like a different world.

Most tech workers in Europe _are_ underpaid (sample size: 1, me, an American living and working in the tech industry in Europe).

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

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does 3X salary rule come from?

Early America when homes were steady at about that price.

In early America you just built your log cabin with an axe and an adze.

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

#17
post #10

It also makes us Europeans feel underpaid :) I have 20 years of experience and don't even make six figures. $350000 base pay sounds like a different world.

Exactly my thought when I read the title. I know the cost of living is higher in US but I'm always baffled by how much tech workers make on the other side of the pond. To me it sounds like a dream.

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

#18
post #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.

There's no way in hell it's close to 8x.

Just crunched the numbers, and an 8x mortgage would exceed my monthly take home.

I felt pretty uncomfortable at 2.5x. I feel a lot of people are probably extending out to 4 or even 5, but 8 would be irresponsible and I doubt you could even find a lender for that.

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

#19

>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% raise…

I don't feel underpaid, but I definitely feel like I've lost tons of ground in the last 2 years. The floor has risen big time. Entry level jobs are paying up to 60k these days, whereas they were closer to 30k a few years back. Good for them, seriously. But watching the floor rise closer to you is never a great feeling.

You should look into a remote job with a California tech company where entry level is 120k. [1]

[1] Filter by "Location independent pay" https://himalayas.app/companies

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

#20

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…

in the UK at the moment you can get morgages for 5.25x salary, especially if you have a high income. I assume the US has roughly the same now. The old mortgage multiplers have gone for now.

5.25 joint salary, though, so that could be as high as 11.5 times one person's salary for one house if you're buying together (they may have a slightly different calculation when combining salary).

And indeed my house, but not the mortgage, was well over 10 times my salary when I bought it. The mortgage was around 8 times my (entry level UK) salary, but about half that if you counted both of us.

Which is one route to how people end up in serious trouble: get a mortgage as newlyweds with 8 times one person's salary, then one person stops working for The standard post-marriage activity: kids, and now you have a house you could never have passed the affordability checks for, as well as a very expensive baby. Then interest rates rise. Game over. Luckily for lots of people, interest rates have been miniscule for a while, but I get the feeling that there's a lot of people on the edge.

Post reply on HN