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Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

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Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#101

Post by lotsofpulp »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #2

I suspect that most of the extra cash reported by people is stock, which was dependent on massive QE injected by the world's central banks and really low interest rates making future revenues more attractive.

Being able to give out $100k+ RSUs probably had something to do with record breaking profits and growth quarter after quarter for 10+ years. The government reducing the purchasing power of the currency is certainly needed for the nominal figures, but so are the stellar bottom lines relative to other businesses.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#102

Post by Melchori »

yrgulation wrote: post #83
IaacForHire wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago a Danish friend of mine said she'd hit a point where it wasn't worth taking a raise because of the progressive taxation system, and so instead she would negotiate for more benefits.

I left denmark many moons ago for the same reason. Tipping point was when i wanted to buy a car. When i was the amount in tax i basically packed and left. Somehow people think that denmark is expensive because somehow products are better quality, but they arent really. It’s just high taxes. At hospitals you have to wait in long queues for anything serious and universities are meh. Paid for my public uk degree a very…

So as soon as you were paying back into your country you decided enough is enough and moved to a country with much higher social inequality?

Okay good for you but a weird brag.

One of my main reason not to go to USA is exactly that. I don't want to earn lots of money while my country people have to go to a Sporthall to get their teeth fixed once a year because you need to be special to go to a dentist.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#103

Post by Melchori »

IaacForHire wrote: post #27
oxff wrote: post #7

In Europe they've probably gone down the past decade I'd say.

Oof, European salaries are absurdly low. When I first left the USA I was thinking "OK I'll get a nice job in Amsterdam or Denmark" .. Then I saw the cost of living and the low salaries, and waved away that dream.

Ah come on...

You can get a good stable salary in Amsterdam and have a great life...

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#104

Post by riyadparvez »

doubled112 wrote: post #90
hashar wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My place has a large shipyard and as story I got told is that good welder lands there with a private jet, do their welding then fly to the next place. I am guessing good welders have a niche market as well.

Welders that can weld underwater are scarce and compensated accordingly. My understanding is that it's dangerous and few want to do it.

> My understanding is that it's dangerous and few want to do it.

Yeah this is the part everyone is ignoring in the conversation. Many highly compensated physical labor jobs are highly compensated because of the associated risk. While being a developer (with exceptions) doesn't expose you to any physical risk.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#105

Post by bradleyjg »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #53
bradleyjg wrote: post #37

Tech, like law, is a bimodal market. If you think of it as a single bell curve your intuitions will be all wrong. The good news is that unlike law it’s possible to jump into the better paying market even if you didn’t go to the “right” school.

I would add finance to the bimodal markets - also like law in that you are locked out unless you did basically everything right from birth.

Finance comes with the additional wrinkle that it’s a tournament profession. The ceiling is very high, but it’s quite a brutal path.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#106

Post by lrvick »

yrgulation wrote: post #86
lrvick wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 18 in rural America I had to do telemarketing and day labor in addition to webdev gigs to cover food and keep gas in the car I lived in. My income more than 10xed once I moved to Silicon Valley where my skills are in high demand. I do not think I know anyone technical making less than 6 figures here, with 200-600k being the norm for anyone with 10+ years of experience. In a post-covid world you can normall…

Tech pay is indeed high but not that high and it has a hard ceiling. Thanks to tech i manage to live a pretty decent life style, compared to shop assistants, or say daily construction workers. But going higher means i have to change careers and potentially go into tech business (which is not really tech, but business). A chartered accountant or lawyer, let alone surgeon, would earn as much as i do a day per hour with…

I have never hit a ceiling and most of my friends have not either. My income has increased significantly every year of my 20+ year career.

There -are- ceilings within a given company though, which is why job changes every 1-2 years are pretty normal. Always another company willing to pay 30% more to gain niche experience you have that is stalling progress for them.

When you do finally max out what any one company will pay but have broad experience, you can pivot to independent consulting where $300-1000/hr is normal, and work the number of hours you want.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#107

Post by tluyben2 »

koevet wrote: post #17
oxff wrote: post #7

In Europe they've probably gone down the past decade I'd say.

Not sure about salaries for permanent positions, but contractor rates have definitively gone up in the last 10 years for me.

They have been rising for the past 30 years for me, but indeed faster the past 10 years.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#108

Post by finikytou »

badpun wrote: post #22
finikytou wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in pure Euro no they went up a bit but definitly lower than the cost of living increase. the problem is that in the past decade Europe welcomed Cyprus, Czech Republic,Estonia,Hungary,Latvia, Lithuania,Malta , Poland ,Slovakia,Slovenia,Bulgaria ,Romania, Croatia. Most of those countries were below living standards/salaries of western europe while having for some of them a very strong education system. Romania for inst…

> Most of the engineers in europe that want to make money work for an american company. From my experience, most of engineers in Europe who want to make money work are contracting. Contracting money can be similar to what the FAANGs offer here (outside of Switzerland), but taxes are often lower and you don't have to debase yourself with multistage leetcode interviews and intracompany promotion games. However, the US…

in many european countries tax will be 50% for contracting. to make 150k you need to make 300k... you cant take days-off,sick-days, might even need to make more for retirment match vs normal job... it is really not a good way to make money

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#109

Post by brandall10 »

IaacForHire wrote: post #93
brandall10 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the vast majority do. But to say that only a small handful of companies pay this is just untrue... it's probably in the high double or even triple digits. Many namebrand non-FAANG (ie. Linked-In, Uber, Snap, Slack) do, and some you might not even think of. One example - OpenDoor, which pays over $400k for a regular senior engineer. Additionally, it's not uncommon for small NYC fintechs to pay straight cash comp…

I think you might slightly underestimate the sheer # of companies and tech jobs in the Bay Area? I think Hacker News is an echo chamber when it comes to this because there are so many "rockstar" type engineers here.

Not arguing that 95% of companies don't. Just saying there are many outside the base FAANG camp that do... it's a much bigger ecosystem than one might expect at first blush. If you hang out on blind or get contacted by these companies over time it becomes evident.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#110

Post by finikytou »

2rsf wrote: post #58
oxff wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I was taking into account cost of living increases and inflation when I wrote it, it's quite grim to live in Western Europe on regular dev salary :D

> it's quite grim to live in Western Europe on regular dev salary No it's not. We still earn above average and (very) generally life in Europe are not grim.

it is not grim but getting a family-home with a dev salary is out of the picture for many western europeans. it wasn't the case one generation ago. american dev can definitly afford a house even in HCOL cities. for a similar job at AWS or Google you getting 550k+ in NYC vs 200k in London or Paris. just looking at real estate (which is number 1 cost) it is worth moving to NYC.

just to give you an idea: MIDTOWN next to bryant park 1 400 000k$ https://ibb.co/m4bPcXR

decent location in paris (definitely not top tier like next to Bryant park) 1 300 000 Euros https://ibb.co/kx8BXh2

why every time we say life became harder/more expensive we get comments saying its not that grim? this is how it starts. first steps are to reduce government benefits (retirement age further, unemployement benefits shorter,...-

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