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Reminder that the post is specifically about Software Engineers and not IT workers in general.

by pm90 8y ago

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Reminder that the majority (>51%, “most” as the article title states) of software engineers are not highly compensated. My points still stand. I have no doubt those highly compensated are comfortable with the status quo, and have quite a bit to lose from unionization. All the more reason for the majority to organize despite it being against the interests of a smaller privileged subset. From the Bureau of Labor (“software engineer median salary”): “The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $59,870, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $160,100. The median annual wage for software developers, systems software was $107,600 in May 2017.”
- closeparen 8y ago
  A 10th percentile software developer makes $65k [0], around twice the median personal income. [0] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm#tab-5 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/... EDIT: I see you have updated your post with the same stat, but you don't seem to understand what it means. Even the lowest-paid software developers are the class enemy that solidarity is built to fight.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    I’m comparing income distribution (~$100k delta top to bottom, not including ISOs and RSUs) within the software engineering domain, not software engineers to non-engineers.
    - closeparen 8y ago
      That's even sillier. Of course only the top few people in the field enjoy the top few salaries in the field. A statistical tautology is not a political cause of action. If you define "highly compensated" as relative to the field, then we can never all be highly compensated.
      - toomuchtodo 8y ago
        My apologies, but I disagree. A union would be able to provide a higher compensation floor (as other unions have done and do today).
        closeparen 8y ago
        Sure, a union could push the already-extremely-high compensation floor even higher.
        toomuchtodo 8y ago
        You consider the existing compensation high compared to other non-engineer roles. I agree, but that is not my argument nor the reason I advocate for collective bargaining. I consider SWE compensation low compared to the value delivered (we don’t need to argue that, right? That’s pretty clear IMO), and therefore desire more of the value be shared with the labor generating it versus it being captured by shareholders.

Reminder that the post is specifically about Software Engineers and not IT workers in general.

by pm90 8y ago

Reminder that the post is specifically about Software Engineers and not IT workers in general.

Reminder that the majority (>51%, “most” as the article title states) of software engineers are not highly compensated. My points still stand. I have no doubt those highly compensated are comfortable with the status quo, and have quite a bit to lose from unionization. All the more reason for the majority to organize despite it being against the interests of a smaller privileged subset. From the Bureau of Labor (“software engineer median salary”): “The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $59,870, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $160,100. The median annual wage for software developers, systems software was $107,600 in May 2017.”

closeparen 8y ago
A 10th percentile software developer makes $65k [0], around twice the median personal income. [0] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm#tab-5 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/... EDIT: I see you have updated your post with the same stat, but you don't seem to understand what it means. Even the lowest-paid software developers are the class enemy that solidarity is built to fight.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  I’m comparing income distribution (~$100k delta top to bottom, not including ISOs and RSUs) within the software engineering domain, not software engineers to non-engineers.
  - closeparen 8y ago
    That's even sillier. Of course only the top few people in the field enjoy the top few salaries in the field. A statistical tautology is not a political cause of action. If you define "highly compensated" as relative to the field, then we can never all be highly compensated.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      My apologies, but I disagree. A union would be able to provide a higher compensation floor (as other unions have done and do today).
      - closeparen 8y ago
        Sure, a union could push the already-extremely-high compensation floor even higher.
        toomuchtodo 8y ago
        You consider the existing compensation high compared to other non-engineer roles. I agree, but that is not my argument nor the reason I advocate for collective bargaining. I consider SWE compensation low compared to the value delivered (we don’t need to argue that, right? That’s pretty clear IMO), and therefore desire more of the value be shared with the labor generating it versus it being captured by shareholders.