Live data from Hacker News

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

toolbox.com

121–130 of 609 posts

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

#121
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're welcome to join us anytime friend!

Are you handing out visas personally?

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

#122
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.

Be aware that if you include the taxes and mandatory insurances you have to pay (and your employer has to pay), you'd usually pass the six figures easily. It's easy to be a millionaire if the state takes fuck all from the paycheck.

47k net on 90k salary in Denmark. You guys have it insanely good and you dont even know it.

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

#124
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percent of people have fixed vs variable rate mortgages?

In UK you always get a fixed rate for X number of years, then it automatically move to variable(but at that point you'd just remortgage again). Like we're on a 1.29% 5-year fixed mortgage, but the whole thing is 20 years long. But after 5 years we'll just remortgage again on new terms.

1.29%? That's really low. In the US, for 5/1-Year adjustable rate mortgage (which sounds the same as what you have), it was 2.37% at the lowest.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE5US

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

#125
post #101
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The employer is the one taking that extra value, so why wouldn’t the “you already have enough money” argument cut both ways? I also assume management is wealthier than the previous year.

Management is employees, too..

Sure, but can management unionize and get protection? They’re clearly a different class of employee.

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

#126
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be clear, I do quite a bit better than that... I'm not complaining. But using 120k as an example...a person went from making 4x the typical full time salary to 2x the typical full time salary in a very short period. This is what I will never understand about most established tech people, they see all the widespread misery and poverty in SV and they still have the capacity to feel sorry for themselves for not mak…

> This is what I will never understand about most established tech people, they see all the widespread misery and poverty in SV and they still have the capacity to feel sorry for themselves for not making X times more than 'that other guy.' Out of sight, out of mind? What does it matter whether the misery and poverty is in your neighbourhood, or in the third world?

> Out of sight, out of mind? What does it matter whether the misery and poverty is in your neighbourhood, or in the third world?

Or a level self-abosrbedness that can only be defined as peak narcissism, really.

I get wanting to be paid what you're worth, but when it comes to pretending you're some how any better than any other wage-slave is where I have trouble crossing over that level of hubris.

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

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be aware that if you include the taxes and mandatory insurances you have to pay (and your employer has to pay), you'd usually pass the six figures easily. It's easy to be a millionaire if the state takes fuck all from the paycheck.

We pay taxes in the EU as well. Often the rate is much higher than the US but it depends on the country.

Sure, but things like health insurance can easily cost $1000+ a month if you want full coverage and/or have some bad health conditions(and you still need to have a big pot of savings in case you need to use it, because your out of pocket excess might be 10k or more). In most european countries the monthly cost is nowhere near that, it scales with your salary(down to zero if you don't earn anything) and still covers you for absolutely everything and of course there is no such thing as copay or excess. Not to mention that Americans are swimming in student debt, while in many European countries higher education is completely free, or nearly free so you simply don't have that expense at all.

Obviously once you start making 300k+ in US none of that really matters, you win at life in general - but it's not like people in Europe making 60k(euro) as software devs are in poverty or anything.

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

#128
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.

20 years here too, UK, I've finally broken the 6 digit bar but I had to move to contracting. My experience made getting job offers simple, but no one wanted to pay more. I'd often get lowballs with the offer of kudos for working at that tech firm. £95k seems to be the upper limit at this point here for FTEs.

£95k is very decent in the countryside but in London that's nothing to write home about, is it? I don't live in London or even the UK, so my statement is just based on friends living there.

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

#129
We europeans are underpaid and taxed to death. The US could easily fill its worker shortage by offering easy visas for EU engineers. Many of us would like to move but it's a real PITA to apply to companies that are even willing to consider visa sponsorship.

I actually have no idea why this is not the case already. It's basically 1st world to 1st world transition and the one losing would be EU.

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

#130
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.

When interest rates were at historical norms (5-7%), 3x income was a good rule of thumb to estimate a housing payment of 1/3rd your after tax salary.

$100,000/yr = $8,300/month pre-tax = $6,000 after tax

$300,000 home minus $60,000 down @6% = $2,000/month for mortgage + tax + insurance

But I recall right before the 2007 crash my manager was shopping for a mortgage and they were willing to lend him $800,000 on a $120,000/yr salary.

Post reply on HN