Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets • Hacker News Board

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#21

Post by dzdt » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 12:54 PM UTC

One of the main ways that employers keep salaries down is information asymmetry. A large business knows with certainty what salary their employees accept, and will have high quality statistical reports on what their competitors pay. Individuals especially near the start of their careers have much less information on what salary corporations may pay. The corporations use this information advantage to help in salary negotiations.

Efforts like this may have quality issues but do help to reduce the imformation disparity between corporations and employees.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#22

Post by tchaffee » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 12:55 PM UTC

When I started my career in software engineering, I increased my salary 300% in one year as a result of ignoring taboos and talking to peers about what they were earning. Anecdote yes, but perhaps useful to some who look at these numbers and wonder if they could earn more. Chances are you could.

The taboo around talking about salaries is to the benefit of companies and who do actually have that information already. Negotiations in which one party has more information usually go better for that party. So it's good to see a new generation of engineers being comfortable talking about this, and in a very public way.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#23

Post by caev » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 12:55 PM UTC

paulgb wrote: post #11

caev wrote: post #7

These tweets are pretty rubbish, why would someone think that they should earn the same salary as someone else? Salaries should be different even in the same company, that way people are then encouraged to work and study harder and to better negotiate and know their value. But these tweets are even worse and it's comparing different companies and countries.

This is just a spreadsheet of tweets that share salary info, where do you see an implication that everyone should earn the same salary? I believe this is intended to help people negotiate. Those of us who have a network of friends in tech get this information informally that way, but salary sharing like this gives people who don't have that network a starting point (albeit one riddled with selection bias and low samp…

This is what the first tweet was about, it was talking about fixing inequality "especially for underrepresented groups like women and minorities"

I don't think it's helping clueless people to know what they could earn, these kind of information are available everywhere, such as Glassdoor, and they are anonymously published.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#24

Post by blueboo » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 12:56 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #4

What is this spreadsheet supposed to prove? It sounds like its either a ego-measuring contest of which company has the best salaries + compensation with position in a certain country (Hint: It's still FAAMNG in Silicon Valley) or it is a giant weird flexing spreadsheet to show that devs in developed countries are paid more that those in third-world countries (Even those who work remotely). The compensation in somewhe…

Oh, honey. Rents are equivalent in the UK, childcare isn’t free, prices are higher, and health care in the US hardly makes up the 100k+ difference.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#25

Post by tchaffee » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 12:59 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #20

rvz wrote: post #4

What is this spreadsheet supposed to prove? It sounds like its either a ego-measuring contest of which company has the best salaries + compensation with position in a certain country (Hint: It's still FAAMNG in Silicon Valley) or it is a giant weird flexing spreadsheet to show that devs in developed countries are paid more that those in third-world countries (Even those who work remotely). The compensation in somewhe…

> The compensation in somewhere like California is still high due to the cost of living No no no no NO! I am BANNING this argument entirely from now onwards! The cost of living in the Bay Area is higher, yes. But salaries are AT LEAST TWICE what they are in many other places, and the difference between post-tax salary and living costs - in other words, disposable income - is correspondingly much larger. This "living…

I would have upvoted this except for

> You're just embarrassing yourself by making it.

One reason I like HN is because the personal attacks are so infrequent. Please let's not ruin a good argument by making it about ego.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#26

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 1:08 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #20

rvz wrote: post #4

What is this spreadsheet supposed to prove? It sounds like its either a ego-measuring contest of which company has the best salaries + compensation with position in a certain country (Hint: It's still FAAMNG in Silicon Valley) or it is a giant weird flexing spreadsheet to show that devs in developed countries are paid more that those in third-world countries (Even those who work remotely). The compensation in somewhe…

> The compensation in somewhere like California is still high due to the cost of living No no no no NO! I am BANNING this argument entirely from now onwards! The cost of living in the Bay Area is higher, yes. But salaries are AT LEAST TWICE what they are in many other places, and the difference between post-tax salary and living costs - in other words, disposable income - is correspondingly much larger. This "living…

> I am BANNING this argument entirely from now onwards

Not sure you have the authority to do that, I'm afraid.

> ...lazy, innumerate, and wrong. You're just embarrassing yourself by making it.

This is a personal attack.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#27

Post by myth_drannon » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 1:10 PM UTC

I wonder how many people are going to get fired for their tweets. I see some very famous names severely underpaid, curious if they are going to get a bump in their salary or get fired.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#28

Post by j7ake » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 1:10 PM UTC

I always support disclosing salary information but I found it silly that the original tweet was prefaced with some greater goal of helping minorities or disadvantaged people. The subtext was clearly a flex to show how good developer salaries are in the USA, and by disguising it as doing some social good the tweet came off as distasteful.

A person in Nigeria is not being helped by the person in US disclosing their salary information.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#29

Post by colinbartlett » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 1:14 PM UTC

myth_drannon wrote: post #27

I wonder how many people are going to get fired for their tweets. I see some very famous names severely underpaid, curious if they are going to get a bump in their salary or get fired.

In the US, the National Labor Relations Act expressly forbids employers from preventing employees from discussing wages. So it’s certainly not legal for a company to fire someone for their tweet, at least in the US.

Re: Developer salary spreadsheet compiled from tweets

#30

Post by senordevnyc » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #18

bobmaxup wrote: post #14

I am terribly underpaid.

I feel that. Though I don’t have to live in a CA hellscape where half my paycheck has go to rent.

It’s really not that bad. I just took a job in NYC at Square making $420k my first year (though stock price increase is already pushing that closer to $500k) and my rent is $4300 for a 2 bedroom in a doorman building in manhattan. It’s expensive, but only about 10% of my gross income. Once you include my wife’s income, it’s even less of a big deal (and she makes under six figures).

You might consider CA a hellscape for other reasons, but the cost-of-living-adjusted salaries for big tech in SF, Seattle, and NYC are higher than anywhere else in the country.