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$900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

levels.fyi

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Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#151

Post by [deleted] »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #144
dheera wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah, take home of $13.5k a month can get a little tight if you're looking at an $8k mortgage on a crappy little shithole condo You surprisingly (considering you're making 5x the median household income for the US) end up having to lightly adhere to some sort of budget. With car payments, sending money to your family, and local inflated prices, it's easy to find yourself not saving enough for early retirement I think…

[deleted]

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#152

Post by kristjansson »

29athrowaway wrote: post #145
dheera wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Unless you have a tax write off, then you don't have to pay that much tax. You can get legal insurance as well and get all that nonsense done for $20. Elderly people can go retire in Mexico and have a better life than whatever is possible in the US, in towns full of other retired people.

What are you writing off against W2 salary?

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#153

Post by ironrabbit »

Panini_Jones wrote: post #136
zerr wrote: post #88

7-figure total comp is common for E6 and very common for E7 engineers at Meta. A stock being a significant part of course.

Why does levels.fyi say US$542,547 for E6? I count only 6 figures.

New hires' comp is much higher than existing employees', especially if you've hit your cliff. 7 figures for E6 can happen if you joined recently, have good counter-offers, and negotiate. It's not super uncommon but it's also not the median E6 comp.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#154

Post by [deleted] »

Solvency wrote: post #130
gambiting wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point - is it that people should pay different amount for identical amount of work based on how much they themselves are paid?

Vehicle registration fees, like many others, are 100% a blunt money collection mechanism imposed by the government. This has nothing to do with a poor or wealthy person buying a new Playstation 5.

[deleted]

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#156

Post by usaar333 »

dheera wrote: post #117
jocaal wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Taxes aren't that high even if you are under the standard deduction. Assuming you are married here as you are taking about kids.

Fed + fica is 21% combined. State is 6%. Imputing sales tax doesn't make sense either - rent isn't subject to it.

Take home is a bit north of $200k. Yeah, that's affluent here. Not upper class, but solidly upper middle.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#158

Post by gambiting »

Solvency wrote: post #130
gambiting wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point - is it that people should pay different amount for identical amount of work based on how much they themselves are paid?

Vehicle registration fees, like many others, are 100% a blunt money collection mechanism imposed by the government. This has nothing to do with a poor or wealthy person buying a new Playstation 5.

Who mentioned anything about vehicle registration fees? I assumed OP meant servicing and such.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#159

Post by joshuamorton »

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?

I always see this and it always rubs me the wrong way. You're presuming that the only form of innovation is an entirely new consumer product.

But keep in mind that Google regularly launches new products and features that are more profitable than many startups, and then shutters them, and regularly launches individual features or pieces of infra that are industry leading (or defining, as in the case of k8s). They just aren't new consumer products.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#160

Post by bluedevilzn »

tyingq wrote: post #132
dheera wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I get what you're saying, but the median income for SFO is way below what tech people get paid. "barely livable" is perhaps a bridge too far for the $300k+ crowd. :)

The median person in SFO lives a way worse life than a median person in Ohio
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