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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

#571

Post by eru »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #310
TimPC wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of ignoring all the positive effects from density. Yes, housing for density is hard. Yes, there are some negatives. But you would not get anywhere near the economic productivity you do from 330 Million people uniformly spread across the US as you do from having huge spikes in NYC and LA (and other metropolitan zones). You also have to face the fact that as you spread people out, most costs go up. Cities…

There's a middle ground between spread out uniform, and having a few major population centers. Germany is a great example.

Big cities in Germany are richer than the small cities. And Germany is poorer than the US, too.

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

#572

Post by eru »

deepsun wrote: post #225
dimitrios1 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only Americans reignited their imagination and didn't just settle on having a few big cities in opposite corners of the country. America is huge. There's land everywhere. Start dreaming. China has 160 cities with 1+ million people. We have 10. Granted, there is a massive population difference, but we should most definitely have more than 10. There are major issues when you only have a few cities with the bulk of t…

Well, compared to the rest of the world, I found US diversification much better than most of other countries, that have only one major city to where everything flows in.

The US is multi-centric. Similar to eg Germany, but different to UK or France.

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

#573

Post by lcvw »

eru wrote: post #562
lcvw wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not true. Property taxes are based on relative property values within a region such as a county or school district. Here in NY, appraisals are done at the county level and then that determines the amount you pay to the school district, town, county, etc. If budgets don’t increase, then your property tax stays the same even if your house is worth more. There are towns in my area with 1 million dollar houses th…

Oh, that's weird. I assumed property tax was set at a fixed percentage of home value per year? Thanks for explaining! Though to be clear, most of what I explained still applies: if you are looking to buy real estate, the expected burden of property taxes will already be baked into the market price. Almost no matter how the taxes are set.

Yes it is true. Basically the formula for your taxes are (appraised home value / total appraised value of all houses in the town) * budget of the town. The market does absolutely take it in effect, like I said, towns with lower taxes sometimes become wealthy enclaves were people will drop 2 mil on a house and then have basically no taxes. My only issue with the system is it winds up being regressive sometimes because the wealthier an area is the lower the taxes tend to be.

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

#574

Post by hnfong »

websap wrote: post #539
ryandrake wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile for those that have the time and willpower to grind leetcode, they know they can command a 20-40% raise every few years. One thing a lot of people forget about this 20-40% number is: It's only true early in your career. It might be hard for younger folks to believe, but you will all hit a ceiling and plateau. My first job hop was for +50%! The next one was about 40%, the next one 15%, and so on. Now, with…

If you've been in tech for 20 years and aren't making 1 MM per year, you're doing something wrong. Talk to people around you.

> you're doing something wrong

Like, not being born with a US citizenship?

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

#575

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

mgkimsal wrote: post #473
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #256

I was recently laid off along with >30% of the company. I really liked the job, I had full autonomy to do whatever I wanted. Research new tech, optimize our existing infrastructure, etc. I was the sole SysAdmin and I ran the operations very well. The problem: Pay was stagnate. The pay was decent for my region, but a far cry from larger metro areas and others with my skills. So I started looking online and found a gre…

Will you feel underpaid 6 months from now?

No, this is a life changing opportunity for me. I'll make the most of it and when this contract ends, it sets a new bar for other opportunities.

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

#576

Post by eru »

lcvw wrote: post #573
eru wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, that's weird. I assumed property tax was set at a fixed percentage of home value per year? Thanks for explaining! Though to be clear, most of what I explained still applies: if you are looking to buy real estate, the expected burden of property taxes will already be baked into the market price. Almost no matter how the taxes are set.

Yes it is true. Basically the formula for your taxes are (appraised home value / total appraised value of all houses in the town) * budget of the town. The market does absolutely take it in effect, like I said, towns with lower taxes sometimes become wealthy enclaves were people will drop 2 mil on a house and then have basically no taxes. My only issue with the system is it winds up being regressive sometimes because…

We seem to mostly agree.

My observation is that the system is neither regressive nor progressive for people who don't already own a home.

Renters basically don't see this tax at all, and people who are considering buying a home see the same total burden of tax plus mortgage payments.

(Or for people who buy outright with spare cash instead of a mortgage, the constant burden is tax plus opportunity cost of capital.

A mortgage is just a way to rent some capital from a bank in return for compensating them for the opportunity cost.)

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

#577

Post by refurb »

juve1996 wrote: post #560
refurb wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the cost of housing of Western European cities you'd actually want to live in. My understanding is they are as high, if not higher than the US.

I did - the rents are cheaper, costs overall are cheaper, there are more amenities, you aren't nearly as reliant on cars, etc. This is all out there online. Ultimately it comes out in the wash. If you get lucky and don't get fired in the US and you're a 10x dev, it's obviously better in the US. Most aren't in that boat.

Please provide sources for comparable housing in Western Europe to comparable housing in the US (major cities for both).

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

#578

Post by eru »

marcusverus wrote: post #356
maxsilver wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American cities don't ban housing construction (the one exception being San Francisco/Bay Area). Every other major US metro (literally everyone except SF) has been experiencing a massive housing construction boom for the past ten years straight now.

The 2010's were the least productive decade for housing since the 60's. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST

And the 1960s is in there, just because FRED doesn't have earlier data.

Also keep in mind that the linked FRED graph doesn't adjust for population size nor number of households in the country.

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

#579

Post by simonh »

adamsmith143 wrote: post #458
Firmwarrior wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Except Apple and others have already been caught colluding to stop engineers from making higher salaries.

And the courts put a stop to it. There were several cases against various companies over the years, but there don’t seem to be any since 2014. Did engineers salaries suddenly jump as a result 6 years ago? Is there any evidence of significant collusion since?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

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

#580

Post by googlr29783 »

simonh wrote: post #579
adamsmith143 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Apple and others have already been caught colluding to stop engineers from making higher salaries.

And the courts put a stop to it. There were several cases against various companies over the years, but there don’t seem to be any since 2014. Did engineers salaries suddenly jump as a result 6 years ago? Is there any evidence of significant collusion since? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

Steve and Larry share their employees salaries with each other to avoid a bidding war over top talent.

Lucy finds out and orders Steve and Larry to stop doing that.

Now Steve shares salary data with Teddy and Teddy tells Steve what the market average is. Larry also shares salary data with Teddy and also learns what the market average is.

No collusion! But the effect is the same. That's why they earn the big bucks.

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