Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#1

Post by chime » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 8:47 AM UTC

If a single person can accomplish everything that an average team of 3 programmers/designers can, in the same amount of time, would you compensate the single person at the combined pay of the 3 average employees? The single developer will provide the same level of documentation, testing, communication as any average team of 3 would.

Certainly there is a lot of benefit to having a team of 3 (basic redundancy, knowledge transfer, mix of ideas etc.) and just as many headaches (management, HR issues, conflicts, communication problems). However, if the final product (code, presentation, documentation, delivery etc.) from both the single developer and the team-of-three are similar, would you consider hiring the single developer at 3x the salary of others?

And why or why not?

Edit: I should add, this is not a rant/complaint/request-for-job/rockstar-rage but just a question that came up while discussing labor market, economics, startups, and above-average skills with a friend.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#2

Post by rorrr » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 8:58 AM UTC

How would you determine that in your hiring process?

I've done a lot of interviews, and I can tell you, with the exception of a few famous superstar developers, it's practically impossible.

So yeah, the answer is "yes", but the question is equivalent to "Would want to always have perfect health, if you had that option?".

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#3

Post by wisty » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:21 AM UTC

Yes, in theory. But it's too hard to tell. I'd pay slightly more, in the hopes that the competition would generally be too dumb to give them even a slight bonus.

And if all the smart people think like I do (and there's enough dumb managers to keep productivity-linked pay from actually happening), that's an even bigger reason.

Sorry if that's not an encouraging answer.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#4

Post by willvarfar » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:27 AM UTC

As an employee it is your goal to get good-enough renumeration

As an employer, its your goal to get as much done properly as possible for as little as possible

An employee doing 3x the work for 3x the salary is no more effective than 3x workers, as yu explicitly said all else was equal.

Employer snags a 3x for 1x salary and they are winning.

(Why I find self-employment = self-fulfilment)

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#5

Post by guelo » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:37 AM UTC

No because none of them will ask for more than double so there's no need to pay them more.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#6

Post by DanielRibeiro » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:41 AM UTC

The three developers suffer from Conway's law[1], unless working very closely. And more people take more space, which costs more money. So, in general, more people, even the salary cost is the same, is a worse deal economically.

But you may not notice the issues with only with 3 people. Try comparing 30 vs 10.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Law

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#7

Post by ocdprogrammer » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:43 AM UTC

If I was a "classical" manager, of course not. If I was a slightly honest manager I'd give a 1.3x - 1.5x salary. I've met one honest manager in 7 years (maybe I'm unlucky). One thing that makes your scenario highly improbable: Very often the good programmers are not the ones that write 3x more code than the others but those who solve the problem with less code and avoid some huge pitfalls on the way (This ideea is widely popular on the internets). Easy to guess.. managers rarely see what you didn't do and even more rarely appreciate it.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#8

Post by chime » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:47 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #5

No because none of them will ask for more than double so there's no need to pay them more.

I added a 1.5x - 2x option.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#9

Post by Tichy » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

I think if you are 3 times better than Joe average, you should probably use two thirds of your time to create something noteworthy. For example write a technical book or create a popular framework. Then you can justify asking for a lot more money. Google seems to have hired lots of folks like that, for example.

Re: Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

#10

Post by ajg1977 » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

Assuming its my company and we're a small outfit I'd love to have them but I wouldn't pay 3x (or even 2x) overhead.

1) At a 3x salary you'll need to lose two other employees and sacrifice the redundancy, idea mix etc that you point out. Reducing the HR etc overhead by two employees is far less of a gain.

2) Their higher output is going to be at least partially due to more intensive work habits which may not be sustainable over the long run.

3) If they ever decide to move on you need to hire three replacements and hope they work out and can take over from your superstar without losing too much momentum (all without ever meeting the guy since its unlikely you'll find & hire them within his two week notice period).