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How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

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Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#482
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pg wasn't questioning whether this was illegal or not, he was interested in what the impact was.

> he was interested in what the impact was No he wasn't; comparing tech salary growth to other salary growth in the presence of a tech boom was completely disingenuous. Wages can increase relative to other industries, and still be being slowed by collusion. It would be just as disingenuous if someone said we should measure it by whether tech companies' profit per-employee increased during the time relative to other f…

If you had good enough data you would be looking at the change over time and could see dips in the rate of change.

Also, 'disingenuous'? Because he posited the idea that there might be data that could be brought to bear?

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#483
post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right. I'm demanding a 500k bonus from my boss tomorrow or I'm GONE!

You should. I write code in another industry (HFT) and most people coming out of college are getting 400-500k bonuses or more after a year. We joke about how raw of a deal the average developer in SV is getting -- Google has roughly the same net profit/employee that we do (maybe even more), and all they're getting is chump change.

Interesting. How does one get into that industry? Can you shoot me an email?

I thought HFT was going into rough times?

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#484
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

real changes that need to be made to h1b are the fact that they need to prioritize the h1bs to foreigners who graduate from US universities. Every year thousands of foreign PhD students graduate and go back to their home country not because they want to but because they could not get an H1B visa mostly because they wont work at the cut rate a person fresh from their home country would work for. These PhDs are trained…

Is this true? I am from India and want to do a PhD in US. I thought the work opportunities of PhD gards is good.

Read about "post doctoral treadmill" and adjunct gigs, which are like second tier faculty. If you get a phd in some programming related field, like compilers, programming languages, networking, yes, you can work for some valley firms. Yes, you can get green card easy, too. But there is no 'secure' employment like the phd grads of 1970s

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#485
post #392
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90k USD ist just shy of 66k Euro, which is by no means unheard of for an experienced developer. I know personal anecdotes doesn't count for much, but I turned down several 80k offers in Berlin. I would expect salaries in Munich to be 10-15% higher due to cost of living.

From what I've heard from colleagues, and seen while working on projects there, Munich sucks precisely because it's so expensive and the pay does not track the cost of living. Working in Frankfurt pays better, and living there is just slightly cheaper. Berlin's cost of living is catching up fast. You're right that 90k USD (~65-70k EUR) for a dev is not unheard of, but it appears to be the final stop on the salary tra…

I should have clarified then. I turned down 80k EUR offers, so 70k EUR is definitely not the final stop in Berlin.

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#486
post #13

Every time I read an article about this I fell like I'm at The Onion. Drive ++down++ engineer wages? Really? Does anyone on planet earth feel like engineer wages are/were artificially low?

Have you seen what a lawyer or a doctor with the same experience makes?

Both have more education than the typical programmer, the majority of lawyers actually barely make over $100k, and doctors are not only significantly more trained than programmers but also generally work more and literally save lives.

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#487
post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the nature of at-will employment.

What point are you making?

My point is that if the employee has no guarantee of continued employment over the period where the company still benefits from the IP that employee created, why should the company have any right/expectation to the employee's continued employment during a period that is critical for the company? Employees can and should be expected to leave at any time in the absence of a contract to the contrary.

Re: How Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down tech engineer wages

#488
post #477
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good information. "Port your I-140" though?

Oops, good question. You port your priority date not your i-140. The new employer still needs to apply for a new i-140 with your previous PD. This way you don't lose your place in the queue.

Got it, thanks for the reply!
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