> To be honest, compensation is already _extremely_ high in the U.S. relative to the rest of the world Check out compensation for medical doctors, dentists, nu

> To be honest, compensation is already _extremely_ high in the U.S. relative to the rest of the world Check out compensation for medical doctors, dentists, nurses, attorneys, sales people, and an endless list of others in the US compared to Russia, China, and Central Europe. Hint: the median pay for any of these is often 5x or more here. Compare cost of living too, while you're at it. Practically any profession in the US makes more money than anywhere else. Certainly in big cities like SF and NYC. > Said otherwise, developers in China and Russia and Central Europe - often who speak very good English - are now increasingly competing with U.S. developers as the world embraces more remote work. There were articles about outsourcing 10 years ago too. In fact, the perceived rush to "outsource all the things!" that many companies embraced (to their detriment) is why a lot of good people saw software engineering as a hopeless field consigning them to compete with foreigners for pennies. That's why we have the current shortage of senior engineers: sensible folks didn't want to have to race to the bottom on comp against foreigners living in locations where $50k buys you a palace. > I suspect that before salaries increase more in the U.S., we'll see it first increase in these developer-rich emerging markets. They already are. Check out what's going on in Bangalore right now. The tech industry has been scaring developers into submission by waving the outsourcing stick for decades. Then they discovered good talent is rare everywhere. Now good engineers in Bangalore are making salaries that are in the same ballpark as American salaries. Let pay rise there too, I say. Good for them.