They don't once mention total comp, it's all about salary, outside of large corporations this isn't far off, but for FANG this makes a big difference. Even if

They don't once mention total comp, it's all about salary, outside of large corporations this isn't far off, but for FANG this makes a big difference. Even if they are including RSUs, there's no way they can reasonably value ISOs which are huge for the middle-tier startups. The other thing is the average/median is almost certainly being brought down by the loads of juniors, and tiny ramen-style startups that aren't paying shit. On the flip side, they may be excluding some engineering management roles on the top end. Also, remember that outside your bubble there are a lot of companies of all sizes that need software engineers and don't have access to the same talent pool. There are an awful lot of people hanging out pulling a salary that have absolutely no business being software developers, and are happy to make $50-80k by just knowing enough to fly under the radar in a big shop.