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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

#371

Post by wil421 »

passivate wrote: post #347
wil421 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been telling me IT was a bad field to go into since I was in high school in the early 2000s. India and outsourcing is going to take your job, don’t go into IT. Here I am years later in one of the best job markets for IT. IT related jobs are constantly in the top 3 for projected grown in the next decade or so. Yet, I still have to explain to older people who maybe worked in IT/Telecoms in the 90s that no I…

Actually, in-house IT is going away. I've seen many companies switching to a hybrid format with a skeleton IT crew and larger external managed service providers providing IT services. And many managed service providers do have a global teams. Can you link to the report about projected IT jobs growth?

Companies will always need a global presence especially the larger ones I’ve worked for. I’ve worked with people all over the world mostly the US, India, and EU/Europe.

The idea that you shouldn’t get into IT in the US is silly. Companies need global workforces and most American companies aren’t going to outsource everything. I worked for MSPs and interviewed with many last year. Yes SAAS and hybrid outsourced infra to MSPs is common, especially in Europe.

Article from Forbes specific to 2022 growth.[1] Healthcare and IT are usually the top 2 skilled worker areas with growth. I’ve seen Physician's Assistant and Software Engineer as the top 2 growth jobs for college grads.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2021/11/08/the-top-...

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

#372

Post by jcadam »

silisili wrote: post #18
dalyons wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm at 2.8x and no sir, I don't like it. At least I got 2.75% on my mortgage. Though I have a feeling we're heading back to 2008ish levels of job insecurity so maybe I'll end up homeless after all.

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

#373

Post by dehrmann »

indecisive_user wrote: post #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% raise…

> Many companies posted record growth and profits over the pandemic, but still give out paltry 3-5% raises every year.

A few disconnected points:

As we're seeing, some of that growth was temporary. Between inflation and growth, record profits is expected from any company not in decline. Allocating profits from growth to more growth is a reasonable choice. There's no reason for wages to track profits. Wages are driven by the labor market; profits just act as a wage ceiling.

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

#374

Post by Firmwarrior »

firstplacelast wrote: post #343
simonh wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're able individually as a sole contributor to create 10M of value, sure, off you go, quit you job to go solo and generate all that sweet revenue for yourself. It turns out someone identifying a market opportunity, getting funding, renting office space, hiring HR, infrastructure, service and support personnel, product designers, QA, sales, etc, etc all costs a surprising amount of money and effort that for some…

…or form a union with only those capable of generating 10M/year and dictate that market together. Easier than starting a company.

I might join a union of all software engineers in order to help junior engineers keep from getting completely burned out or horribly exploited, but I wouldn't join a union of elite FAANG engineers. I'm pretty sure the $250-$500k we can command is the most we can reasonably expect companies to be able to pay, since there's a ton of competition among them to hire us already

Otherwise, someone would've collected some VC money, hired the best of the best code monkeys for $1M+ each, and taken over some tech niche by now

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

#375

Post by germinalphrase »

wil421 wrote: post #233
mjbeswick wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only seems like that but people in the US have to pay for things that Europeans take for granted. You might earn more, but most people would end up with less disposable income.

Paying $12k on the high end out of your non-taxed income for a family of 4 does not make up for a near 2x salary gap.

No, but medical bills in the US can essentially be unbounded if insurance denies your claim. You pay 12k in insurance. That doesn’t mean you don’t pay anything beyond that number. People literally sock away millions of dollars for elderly care with the expectation that they won’t leave a dime to their kids.

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

#376

Post by matheusmoreira »

indecisive_user wrote: post #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% raise…

> those that have the time and willpower to grind leetcode, they know they can command a 20-40% raise every few years

Is this really all it takes?

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

#378

Post by emteycz »

nicoburns wrote: post #361
emteycz wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No you're not. You're free to do whatever you like. You just won't receive as much money in return as you would otherwise have done. You say no and then you say the same thing I said, lol. > It was you who said further up the thread that would choose to work less. No, I said your idea would force me to work less and I also said that it'd have a serious negative impact on me and my health.

It wouldn't force you to work less. If you think earning less would have a serious impact on your mental health, then spare a thought for those who already earn dramatically less than you, and still would (although not by quite so much) after such a change was implemented.

I can't spare a thought for them when my own existence is endangered. I'm thinking about them a lot now, and donate when I can, but that would have to end.

The problem here is being forced to work less at a time when I'm able to work more. It's not fair to make me earn less just because I wasn't able to spread out my work across the calendar because of my mental health issues.

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

#379

Post by happymellon »

maccard wrote: post #254
Nextgrid wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that taxes eat quite a bit of that (seemingly more so than in the US).

US taxes are similar to UK taxes, particularly in california. Putting £95k into Salary Calculator [0] says you take home ~67% of your salary after taxes. £95k is ~$120k today, and putting that into this [1] calculator says you take home ~64% of your salary. [0] https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php [1] https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator#...

So the UK is taxed lower than California? And we have more public services?

What do they spend it on?

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

#380

Post by maerF0x0 »

michaelchisari wrote: post #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 c…

Now that value delivered is disconnected from location, live somewhere inexpensive and push for your actual value. The only real requirement is US friendly timezones and 10+Mbps up speed internet. I'm sure there are 100s of cities in America that meet this expectation and would make you "rich" in that locale with a $200k TC .

Choosing to live somewhere for the "lifestyle" is in itself a form of expenditure for which your employer should neither be subsidizing nor penalizing.

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