Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 166 posts

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#151

Post by skeptical »

I will assume everyone is too proud to comment that those thresholds are ridiculously high. I work in and I interact with people from different european countries. I'm sorry if I sound like a party pooper, but I would say over 75% of the developers I know make less than 50k€. Many, me included, make much less tan that.

I don't know what all you guys do, but I've had a few average developers jobs and the numbers are much smaller than those pointed on this thread. And I wouldn't say I'm particularly low-payed.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#152

Post by [deleted] »

cletus wrote: post #61
dev_jim wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me how you found a renovated walk-up 1BR in Chelsea for $2k :)

A good broker is worth their exorbitant fee. The way I see it a broker should be doing one of two things (or preferably both): 1. Saving you time in finding an apartment; and/or 2. Saving you money. It took two afternoons (in January this year) to find this apartment. When I saw it was being renovated so I had no idea what it would look like but it was a decent size (~500 sqft), on a nice street off 8th Avenue and on…

[deleted]

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#153

Post by [deleted] »

jrmurad wrote: post #142
tsuyoshi wrote: post #137

You must live in a low cost area, because you're overestimating the rent in high cost areas. I live in New York City (Manhattan, even) and believe me, you can get a one bedroom for less than $2000 a month (in Manhattan, even!). And certainly you can't put the entire state of California into the "expensive" category.

> you can get a one bedroom for less than $2000 a month (in Manhattan, even!) Some might think you're including Harlem, Washington Heights, etc. I pay <$1600 for a 1BR in Murray Hill (midtown).

[deleted]

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#154

Post by bambax »

ThaddeusQuay2 wrote: post #70

How much do I make? Sometimes, I simply can't put a price on what I do. Two years ago, I was kidnapped by monkeys, who appeared to be in a trance. They took me to the top of the Swayambhunath Buddhist complex, in Kathmandu. I was told that this was the Monkey Temple. As a monk translated the wishes of the holy monkeys, I discovered that I was required to rewrite the OS of their ancient computer, which had failed to r…

This is one of the funniest comments I've ever read! You should write short stories / books (or maybe you do?)

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#155

Post by rmc »

tl wrote: post #150
patio11 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pervasive lack of transparency regarding going rates helps people use differential access to market data to exploit young engineers, pervasively. All else equal, we should probably strive to decrease exploitation of the disadvantaged side in that relationship. Put another way: some kids are grauduating with CS degrees and taking $25k offers, because they think doing otherwise would be impolite. . That is messed up.

Yeah, I got stuck with this when I started out. Cost of living is low where I live and tech jobs were few. The worst part is that companies will use your salary history against you while you're climbing out of this hole.

companies will use your salary history against you

Then get a new job and don't tell the prospective employer your old salary.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#156

Post by rmc »

Timothee wrote: post #83
eliben wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree totally. For instance, I could never figure out if these American polls take pension deductions into account. Where I live, the employer pays additional ~20% on top of base salary into various pension/saving funds, but since everyone gets it, it isn't taken into consideration when comparing salaries. I always wondered if seeing a quoted $100K salary in the US - does it include these pension payments or not.

My guess is that in general no, because for programmers, typically, there isn't any pension. However, there's something called 401k which is a type of retirement account. You can contribute to it through pre-tax contribution directly from your paycheck. It's fairly common for employers to match a certain amount to what employees contribute. Some might match 100%, some 5%, some up to a certain amount, some have some v…

there's something called 401k which is a type of retirement account. You can contribute to it through pre-tax contribution directly from your paycheck

That sounds very similar to a lot of private sector pension schemes that operate in EU member states, e.g. Ireland.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#157

Post by rmc »

scottio wrote: post #68
kashif wrote: post #45

Not everyone works in the US - fairly narrow minded view of the world?

This poll was clearly designed to canvas United States cities, even if it wasn't explicitly stated. Is that narrow-minded? I don't think so. If I happened upon a poll on a Russian tech site that mentioned Omsk and Moscow and St. Petersburg, I'd assume it was a national poll. And then I'd move on. Perhaps it's narrow-minded to assume that a poll on a U.S.-based tech site should by default be global in scope?

a U.S.-based tech site

This is a US based tech site? News to me. I thought it was a global site.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#158

Post by GFischer »

baddox wrote: post #113
eliben wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree totally. For instance, I could never figure out if these American polls take pension deductions into account. Where I live, the employer pays additional ~20% on top of base salary into various pension/saving funds, but since everyone gets it, it isn't taken into consideration when comparing salaries. I always wondered if seeing a quoted $100K salary in the US - does it include these pension payments or not.

I don't see it being that complicated. Just respond with your gross yearly pay, as seen on your paychecks. This works fine for anyone except perhaps co-founders are very early employees that don't receive a traditional paycheck.

I might have polluted the poll, but I didn't see it being US-only so I voted (less than 50k, "low" cost of living though some things are ridiculously expensive, it's not apples to apples).

My gross pay is more than twice my take-home pay (and my paycheck is monthly, not biweekly), I know Europeans face the same (and on top of that, I pay 22% sales tax on everything and 60% to 100% import tax).

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#159

Post by yaix »

icode wrote: post #86
yaix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last line is bs. Its not "the government". Taxes are much less. It includes all kinds of insurances included (medical, unemployment, retirement, etc.)

Normaly I would not answer someone who calls my writing "bs". But since its a public discussion, I want to get the facts straight: I pay 42% taxes on income. I pay medical insurance on my own. I dont have unemployment or retirement insurance.

The highest step is 42%, but overall you pay much less. On the first 8k you pay nothing for instance, then you pay some 20% on the next 20k or so, and so on. The last step is 42% for everything above 200k or so.
Post reply on HN