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$900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

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Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#111

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #95
Solvency wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find more interesting is this: A sole proprietor landscaper making $45-50K a year in California is paying $675 a year in annual registration fees just to keep his newish pickup truck on the road. Why newish? Because the people he's servicing trust a guy with a nicer work vehicle than a beaten down 30 year old Tacoma. A $900k developer with the same pickup is also paying $675 a year. Extrapolate this seemingly…

I do not find that interesting. If the goal is wealth redistribution, then either a marginal income/wealth (property)/sales tax accomplishes that. We do not have marginal sales tax rates because it is not feasible. Marginal income tax is feasible, and so it does exist in most places. Marginal property/wealth tax is somewhere in the middle, given the difficulties in valuing thinly traded assets, and the tremendous eff…

Does anywhere in the world have a marginal property tax?

LA introduced a mansion sales tax.

Anywhere else?

My main issue with a marginal property tax is that the areas with high property values already have enough taxes generally for the things property tax covers.

Not sure at least in the US how feasible it would be to have a marginal property tax and the revenue go to the state and the Fed (or even the county's general fund in most places).

My guess is there's a 0% chance the marginal property tax could go to the Fed to reduce Federal income tax, and in most states, a low chance it could even go to the state, or even in most counties that it could go to the general fund instead of mostly to the local school district and local fire department (which are usually already funded adequately).

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#112

Post by financypants »

scarface_74 wrote: post #76

$600K of that is “equity” in a private company. You never know when the company will go public or with what valuation. I can’t sell equity in a private company to exchange for goods and services like I can stock that gets deposited in my brokerage account every six months.

If it is “equity” in a private company, any employees can certainly sell that stock to a venture buyer on the secondary market. However the share price will likely be discounted.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#113

Post by dasil003 »

biztos wrote: post #49
jdm2212 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying someone a lot doesn't magically make them a good engineer. You have to actually hire the best people, and there's only so many of them to go around.

I'm sympathetic to this argument, because I know both low-quality and high-quality engineers at most FAANGs, but in principle isn't offering a lot of money a good way to attract talent? In the case of OpenAI you also have interesting tech and a brand that will massively accelerate your career if you want to stay in that field. So while yeah, you have to hire the best people; and OpenAI like everyone else will be payi…

It's both things. Offering more money increases the inbound applicants dramatically. You want this because top talent is disproportionately likely to have better options and may have a high floor. This does, however, create a non-trivial filtering problem, and one that is hard to scale because recruiters can't reliably differentiate real talent from good talkers. The key here is to make sure your best people are active engaged in recruiting and to minimize the type 1 and type 2 errors in hiring. This is hard to sustain at scale, and I think places like Google and Facebook have been losing the battle on this for many years—also due to engineering brand dilution because they don't actually have that much impactful work relative to the headcount—but OpenAI is small and focused enough that they ought to be able to manage pretty effectively.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#114

Post by tmaly »

jedberg wrote: post #28

Based on what I've seen/heard, they seem to follow a similar comp philosophy to Netflix -- pay top of market to get the best people. But it's also important to note that only $300K of that is in cash. The other $600K is in profit participation, which could take years (maybe even a decade!) to be realized. It could also be worth $6M a year when it's realized. But ultimately it's an investment of your time. Or to think…

I would take it. There are some interesting things to work on.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#115

Post by Ihateyouall1234 »

euiq wrote: post #87
seattle_spring wrote: post #72

It's too bad about their outdated stance on remote work. They could pay $2m and many of the best engineers still wouldn't consider working there on that point alone.

Oh no, I will let Sam know right away!

[dead]

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#117

Post by dheera »

jocaal wrote: post #86
jedberg wrote: post #28

Based on what I've seen/heard, they seem to follow a similar comp philosophy to Netflix -- pay top of market to get the best people. But it's also important to note that only $300K of that is in cash. The other $600K is in profit participation, which could take years (maybe even a decade!) to be realized. It could also be worth $6M a year when it's realized. But ultimately it's an investment of your time. Or to think…

Honestly, if you take 300k home, the risk isn't that high. But the reward is insane.

To be realistic ... 300K in the bay is barely livable if you're targeting a middle class life with kids and targeting retiring at 65.

First, ~46% of it is gone in taxes including federal tax (~25%), state tax (~8%), FICA (~4%), and sales tax on everything you eventually use the money for (~9%).

So that's 162K left. Not a lot to pay sky-high rents, car payments, insane medical bills despite insurance, lawyers to fight said bills, save up money for parental elderly care, save up money for yourself for retirement, etc.

And yeah, having kids on that money? Very difficult.

If you're not in the bay area, different story, it's a very nice income. But they probably won't give you that package if you're remote.

And if you're in the bay and not planning on having kids, it's an okay salary.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#118

Post by xwdv »

Solvency wrote: post #65
giantg2 wrote: post #12

It's always interesting to think about how someone somewhere is earning as much as you earn in a decade or lifetime in a single year. Also that you are that person for someone else.

What I find more interesting is this: A sole proprietor landscaper making $45-50K a year in California is paying $675 a year in annual registration fees just to keep his newish pickup truck on the road. Why newish? Because the people he's servicing trust a guy with a nicer work vehicle than a beaten down 30 year old Tacoma. A $900k developer with the same pickup is also paying $675 a year. Extrapolate this seemingly…

I find it more interesting that the sole proprietor landscaper doesn’t just become a developer and make $900k a year.

Extrapolate this to literally anyone making less than a developer.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#119

Post by sebzim4500 »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #55
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate reality is that those elite circles usually do have the best among them. And having worked in FAANGs, there is some aspect of meritocracy, the code doesnt lie

FAANG employees sure are full of themselves considering they've worked at companies that have failed to innovate for two decades. What was the last successful product that Google launched with all their highly paid engineers?

Engineers at Google aren't supposed to be designing new products, they ostensibly have separate people for that.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#120

Post by BasedAnon »

almost_usual wrote: post #10
rs999gti wrote: post #5

300k salary + 600k stock

Not stock PPUs which are only worth anything if they turn a profit and according to OpenAI that isn’t happening until AGI. https://www.levels.fyi/blog/openai-compensation.html

UBI will just be everyone getting paid dividends from OpenAI stock
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