3 ms·

I'm not sure how typical it is for a grunt level developer to be making >$300k in SV. For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at l

by lgieron 10y ago

I'm not sure how typical it is for a grunt level developer to be making >$300k in SV. For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). I think you can expect yearly earnings of around 150k pounds when you're contracting in London as a (obviously top-notch) technical team lead, which is about $220k. It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20%, compared to the 33+% figure siberianbear gave. Plus, you don't need to wait years for the stocks to vest. The biggest problem with that is that a lot of companies don't like to contract out management, so you're options may be somewhat limited (and if you choose full-time employment instead, you go straight into the maw of 40% taxation).

d4rkph1b3r 10y ago
>For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). False. You have to be very senior, but you do not need to 'typically' be a manager. There was a spreadsheet a few months ago on HN showing that with RSUs, most of the top tech companies pay above this for their higher level (non manager) engineers. >It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20% Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US, maybe it is a comparable if you can make 150k+ doing consulting work in the UK!
- lgieron 10y ago
  > Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US The justification in Europe is that governments want to encourage entrepreneurship (and contracting counts as entrepreneurship), hence lower taxes. I wonder what's the logic behind the US situation.
tobyc 10y ago
I can confirm this. Permanent salaries in the UK are OKish. Contracting is where the money is at. An intermediate developer can pretty easily make £500 a day. If you can make yourself indispensable, or pick a tech stack used in finance, then £700-800 isn't uncommon. As a benchmark, £600 a day is roughly equivalent to $200K USD permanent salary.

by lgieron 10y ago

d4rkph1b3r 10y ago

>For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). False. You have to be very senior, but you do not need to 'typically' be a manager. There was a spreadsheet a few months ago on HN showing that with RSUs, most of the top tech companies pay above this for their higher level (non manager) engineers. >It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20% Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US, maybe it is a comparable if you can make 150k+ doing consulting work in the UK!

lgieron 10y ago
> Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US The justification in Europe is that governments want to encourage entrepreneurship (and contracting counts as entrepreneurship), hence lower taxes. I wonder what's the logic behind the US situation.

tobyc 10y ago

I can confirm this. Permanent salaries in the UK are OKish. Contracting is where the money is at. An intermediate developer can pretty easily make £500 a day. If you can make yourself indispensable, or pick a tech stack used in finance, then £700-800 isn't uncommon. As a benchmark, £600 a day is roughly equivalent to $200K USD permanent salary.