If you look at how salaries are distributed across the US public, the 60k - 100k category is way too large while 151k-200k should probably be just one range and not two. As someone who hires programmers, I am much more interested in how many people make between 60-70, 70-85, and 85-100.
I think it adds value but I have also created a richer survey here ( https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey... ) The raw anonymous results will be shared on HN in a few days w/analysis.
That's an interesting language stack you've displayed. You have Obj-C but not C/C++... From your selection, I'd guess you're either a web or mobile app dev?
I was living in Virginia for most of the period from 2000 to 2008. I had salary jobs and I had contractor jobs. I preferred contractor jobs, since they pay better (and I thought I could get by without health insurance -- always a dicey gamble). I slowly got better as a programmer during the years I was there. During the first few gigs I got, in 2000, I was a true novice, and trying to prove myself. I would charge a low, flat rate for projects, and I doubt my hourly rate was better than $20 an hour. I slowly raised that rate to $25 an hour and then $30 an hour. These seemed like huge steps forward at the time. The country was still deep in recession, and the tech sector had been hit very hard, so it wasn't a great time to get into tech with no resume. Somewhere around 2005 it became easy to raise rates, so I raised mine to $40 an hour and then $50 an hour. (Most of the work I did at this time involved websites and used the language PHP. There were a few exceptions, like a big Rails project in 2006, but PHP was the norm.) For whatever reason, I never seemed able to get more than $50 an hour while I was in Virginia. I did start picking up some freelance gigs in New York City, for which I could work for higher rates. I worked remotely. Then, in early 2009, I moved to New York City. I was working for a startup as a freelance contractor. I charged $100 an hour. For awhile New York City seemed somewhat safe from the recession. But the recession caught up with it. The startup I was with burned out, and then I had trouble finding work. Being unemployed, I tried to work on projects of my own. This is when I started wpquestions.com. I went to a lot of job interviews, but apparently the rate I wanted was too high for recession-era New York. I cut my rate to $75, and then to $70 and then to $65 and then to $60 and then to $55. Finally, I just really wanted a gig, so I cut my rate to $50 an hour. I ended up working a contract at winespectator.com. This involved diverse technologies; I was porting a Java/Oracle app to PHP/MySql, and then later I was porting a FileMaker database to PHP/MySql. I started looking for other gigs. Things had improved economically in New York City. I found I could raise my rates again. Everything I've been offered lately has been between $60 and $70 an hour. Again, all of this is contract work, with no health insurance.
One more general question to pile onto this -- what is a 'normal' junior developer salary, for someone fresh out with a bachelor's degree? I'm thinking $60k plus options(for a startup).
Quite interesting. In Germany or Europe very very few programmers would make more than 100k USD (around 70k EUR) unless he is in some position where he leads a team or oversees bigger projects. Then i see how cheap cars and computer hardware etc is in the US and i really start to wonder where this massive difference comes from. US engineers seem to earn way more and generally pay much less for many things. Apple hard…
Except contractors - good contractor in the UK makes £300-£600 day programming
I've seen several long-term UK contracts for £800 a day. Especially for someone with a niche technology, but also rarely for generalists.
That's a rate as advertised by recruiters, so try and get another 12.5% on top if you could go direct.
That would be about $340,000 a year (allowing for 25 days holiday over the year).
Quite interesting. In Germany or Europe very very few programmers would make more than 100k USD (around 70k EUR) unless he is in some position where he leads a team or oversees bigger projects. Then i see how cheap cars and computer hardware etc is in the US and i really start to wonder where this massive difference comes from. US engineers seem to earn way more and generally pay much less for many things. Apple hard…
There's so much more demand in US. They got companies like Microsoft, Google, Intel, AMD, Oracle, etc, plus the combined demand of VC-funded startups.
There's no equivalent market in other developed countries, not even UK, Germany and Japan.
I think it adds value but I have also created a richer survey here ( https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey... ) The raw anonymous results will be shared on HN in a few days w/analysis.
C++ is an 'Other' language? I am feeling really, really unhip.
It is not. Taking the liberty of grouping C with C++, you get the most popular language in existence.
We work many more hours and we have to pay more for benefits like health care. Most other medical costs are higher here too; drugs are a lot more expensive in the US than the rest of the world, because the drug companies fold the research and testing costs into our prices, and only include manufacturing and distribution costs in the rest of the world's pricing. Cars might be cheaper here, and gas certainly is, but we…
Erm.. I'm certainly no expert, but 'we have to pay more for benefits like health care' should be somewhat qualified. In DE half of the (state based. There's a 'I don't want to be part of the general system' option that works slightly different) health care is payed by your employer, half is deducted from your salary. It's a percentage of your income. Next thing that kind of trips me here is that I'm pretty sure that…
But remember that you only pay that on the last step of the income, to get to 40% of real deductions from your wages you should have a monthly pay >20000€
