What type of compensation is fair for a technical first hire?
What about subsequent technical hires?
Please give a range.
Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#2This kind of question tends to be a bit taboo.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#3This totally depends on the location. Within the US it seems somewhat tied to cost of living, but across the pond in Europe they pay significantly less even when rents are much higher (I'm looking at you London).
Anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 for someone fresh out of school might be normal. For 10 years experience the range could be $50,000 to $250,000.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#4This totally depends on the location. Within the US it seems somewhat tied to cost of living, but across the pond in Europe they pay significantly less even when rents are much higher (I'm looking at you London). Anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 for someone fresh out of school might be normal. For 10 years experience the range could be $50,000 to $250,000.
in nyc, 30,000 a year will get you an untrained monkey with no skills at all... or someone with no concept at all of what they can get paid.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#5This totally depends on the location. Within the US it seems somewhat tied to cost of living, but across the pond in Europe they pay significantly less even when rents are much higher (I'm looking at you London). Anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 for someone fresh out of school might be normal. For 10 years experience the range could be $50,000 to $250,000.
in nyc, 30,000 a year will get you an untrained monkey with no skills at all... or someone with no concept at all of what they can get paid.
hence the range.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#61. It depends heavily on location.
2. It depends on what stage the company is at. Have you raised capital or not (and do you intend to) or are you planning on scaling without capital. Equity, if any, is directly tied to this which can influence pay.
3. Depends on the experience.
Without knowing the above factors, the range can be anywhere between $20k and $250k (albeit, the $250k side is usually not going to happen)
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#7This kind of question tends to be a bit taboo.
That's a taboo I don't understand.
What's wrong with talking about what you earn? I can understand if it was pride/ego preventing people from talking about it. But from the workers' perspective wouldn't it be better to know what the going rates are to make sure you aren't getting ripped off for your work.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#8This totally depends on the location. Within the US it seems somewhat tied to cost of living, but across the pond in Europe they pay significantly less even when rents are much higher (I'm looking at you London). Anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 for someone fresh out of school might be normal. For 10 years experience the range could be $50,000 to $250,000.
in nyc, 30,000 a year will get you an untrained monkey with no skills at all... or someone with no concept at all of what they can get paid.
Right I would say that is the same for most of the US. If I had to venture to guess, I would imagine the national average for entry level is around 50-60k and senior developers are north of 100k in most major metros.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#9In the Bay Area, pre-funded: $0-30k; seed-funded: $30-70k; series A: $60-140k. All: plus equity.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you pay software engineers?
#10This totally depends on the location. Within the US it seems somewhat tied to cost of living, but across the pond in Europe they pay significantly less even when rents are much higher (I'm looking at you London). Anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 for someone fresh out of school might be normal. For 10 years experience the range could be $50,000 to $250,000.
Oops, meant to specify the bay area.